A known member of the Five Deuce Broadway Gangster Crips in L.A. admitted to involvement in a fatal shooting near Hyde Park in 2012 before being sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday for racketeering and drug trafficking charges.
Joshua Perez, who authorities say also goes by “Tiny Ange,” pleaded guilty to the felony charges last year. He took part in gang activity such as dealing crack cocaine, robbing people on the street and engaging in violence against gang rivals and supposedly insubordinate members of the Broadway Crips, according to federal prosecutors.
Authorities have said the gang claims territory in South Los Angeles and controls drug sales in an area just west of Skid Row in downtown L.A.
Perez, 27, admitted to joining several other members of the gang in firing more than 40 bullets into a crowd of people walking into a rival gang’s party near the Hyde Park neighborhood of South L.A. seven years ago, authorities said. The shooting was committed in rival gang territory.
William Sherman, a man who authorities say was not part of the rival gang, died in the shooting. Two other people were injured.
One of the guns used in the attack was discovered inside Perez’s vehicle several months later, authorities said. Prosecutors said the Broadway Crips were retaliating against a rival gang after one of its members were recently killed.
Former gang members testified against Perez during his trial, detailing shootings, robberies, assaults and so-called gang discipline committed by Perez on behalf of the Broadway Crips, according to prosecutors.
He was named in a 2014 RICO indictment that outlined 72 defendants and described crimes committed by the Broadway Crips including murders, extortion, illegal firearms possession, robberies, witness intimidation and narcotics trafficking.
Prosecutors said Perez was involved in the gang for more than a decade and took part in its “hit squad,” which was known as the “Gremlins.” The federal investigation into the gang was thus dubbed Operation “Gremlin Riderz.”
Perez had a large Gremlin tattooed across his chest, according to prosecutors.
He pleaded guilty on the fifth day of his trial and prosecutors said the all 72 defendants named in the 2014 indictment have either pleaded guilty or been convicted of the crimes they have been charged with.