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Gang member gets 17 years in “brazen” assassination attempt at a busy Connecticut courthouse

Hartford Courant - 3/4/2022

A 25-year-old gang member who riddled a parked car with bullets in a mid-day assassination attempt outside a busy Bridgeport courthouse was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison Friday after being convicted of a variety of federal racketeering crimes.

Federal prosecutors said Marquis Isreal and other members of a gang built around public housing projects on Bridgeport’s north side pumped at least 20 shots into the car containing four members of a rival gang in January 2020 in retaliation for the killing of a northside gangster by one of the rivals the night before.

The attack left 23 bullet holes in just the front windshield of the parked Chevrolet. The four victims were hit, two seriously. One was paralyzed and a second victim sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his back, shoulder and wrist, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton for a stiff sentence in court and in a long legal memo detailing an continuing investigation of extraordinary gang and drug violence in Bridgeport.

“The brazenness of the defendant’s conduct here — firing dozens of rounds into a parked car with four passengers inside, steps away from a busy courthouse on a Monday afternoon; burning the car after the shooting; his lack of remorse exhibited by filming the “Person of Interest” YouTube rap video after attempting to kill four people; his continued criminal conduct including dealing drugs and promoting violence up until his arrest and detention on federal charges; and his general glorification of violence and promotion of the gang lifestyle all warrant such a sentence,” the prosecutors wrote in the memo.

They said Isreal, also known as “Garf” or “Gbaby,” is a member of the Original North End gang based in the Trumbull Gardens area of Bridgeport whose members sold narcotics, laundered money, robbed drug dealers, stole cars from inside and outside Connecticut and used them to commit crimes.

The north side gang and its allies waged war against rivals on the city’s east and west sides for three years until a federal task force shut it down in the summer of 2020, federal prosecutors said.

Prior to the courthouse assassination attempt, prosecutor said one of the victims shot and seriously wounded Isreal.

He has been incarcerated since his arrest in August 2020. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and aiding and abetting, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, both federal racketeering offenses, according to federal officials.

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