FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - After a monthslong investigation, the Broward Sheriff’s Office announced they’ve arrested eight members of a criminal gang connected to several murders throughout Broward County, some dating back to 2021.
Investigators said the suspects are facing 33 counts, which include murder, attempted murder and racketeering charges. They were identified as follows:
- Sigmund Brown, 27
- Gerard Charles, 30
- Vondarious Davis, 29
- Kevaris Johnson, 23
- Tyriq Jackson, 24
- Kevaris Johnson, 23
- Trayvon Key, 27
- Jared McCabe, 25
- Rajah Rolle, 16
Five of the gang members appeared before a judge on Wednesday. They pleaded not guilty. The other three will be arraigned on Friday.
According to BSO, the investigation started in January after a shooting at a Best Buy in Plantation left one dead and three other people injured, including two customers.
Police identified the deceased as 17-year-old student athlete Terrance Farrington, a star football player.
“He was buying Ring cameras. Terrance came out, Terrance fell, he died there,” said Terrance Farrington Sr., the victim’s father.
“Terrance was a student full of life and love, and he was one of the star players on my seven-on-seven football team,” said Delvin King, the principal at Youth Under Construction im Pompano Beach.
As detectives continued to search for clues, they found Brown’s fingerprints from a vehicle that was connected to the Best Buy shooting, and that blew open this investigation.
Brown, detectives said, is the leader of the notorious Dania Hot Boyz gang. It was determined by them that Brown and two others, Johnson and Charles, were responsible for Farrington’s death and the attempted murder of three others.
Guns, ammunition, gift cards and stolen credit cards were discovered during the course of the investigation. The eight arrests came 10 months later.
Following those arrests, officials with BSO’s Gang Investigations Task Force, the Broward State Attorney’s Office and several law enforcement partners were able to solve eight homicides and 12 attempted homicides in Broward County.
One of those cases included the murder of 17-year-old Johnnie Henderson, who was inside a vehicle with his girlfriend in Miramar when their vehicle came under fire.
“I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot … my boyfriend,” Henderson’s girlfriend told a 911 dispatcher.
Other callers described the incident.
“We just heard ‘pow, pow, pow, pow, pow,” and I don’t know,” said a caller.
“It was like a semi-automatic, like [gunshot noise], like four times or five times,” said another caller.
Henderson’s girlfriend was rushed to the hospital and has since been released.
Rolle and Johnson are facing another murder charge for Henderson’s death.
BSO said that the gang members were also involved in three murders in 2023.
On April 9, 2023, Antjuan Dobard was shot and killed at a laundromat in Pembroke Park.
“I see these four guys with black hoodies, and I looked, and they started just unloading. They just started firing,” said witness Kenneth Graham.
One month after Dobard’s murder, 23-year-old Vernaldo Donner and 21-year-old Terri McKenzie were found dead following a shooting on Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale.
Investigators said the murders went even further back.
In 2021, 23-year-old rapper WizDaWizard’s body was found in the front yard of a Hallandale Beach home.
The Broward State Attorney’s office broke down each case and the charges against each suspect.
Key and Johnson were charged with the shooting death of WizDaWizard, whose real name is Wisdom Williams.
Johnson is also accused in the shooting death of Dobard, Donner and McKenzie.
If convicted, the members face life in prison or the death penalty, excluding Rolle, who is a minor.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.