February 25, 2026
Provided Image/Philadelphia DA's Office
A grand jury investigation of street gangs in Philadelphia has led to charges against 19 people who allegedly were involved in numerous shootings fueled by drill rap music and social media, prosecutors said. Above, a photo of a shooting scene from the grand jury report.
Nineteen people connected to rival street gangs in Southwest Philly were indicted Wednesday for their alleged involvement in nearly two dozen shootings across the city in recent years, the District Attorney's Office and federal authorities said.
The two-year grand jury probe of warring gangs centered on a cycle of retaliation among members of the city's drill rap scene, a genre known for lyrics that glorify targeted violence. Gang members often rapped openly about shooting their rivals, using music videos and social media posts to claim credit for a running "scoreboard" of homicides, prosecutors said.
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"What we saw through this investigation is that the same group of people repeatedly were doing shootings, using the same guns to do the shootings and bragging about those shootings on social media," Assistant District Attorney Anna Walters said at a news conference.
The homicides and other shootings covered by the grand jury investigation spanned from 2022 to 2024, a period when gang violence surged in Philadelphia following the COVID-19 pandemic. The cases reviewed by the grand jury involved 35 shooting victims and witnesses who ranged from 5 to 42 years old.
"A 5-year-old watching a shooting occur is ridiculous," said Assistant District Attorney Bill Fritze, supervisor of the DA's Gun Violence Task Force. "... This investigation, the work that these detectives do, is based on the victims that have not had justice yet. Today is a good day for them."
Search warrants were executed at five properties early Wednesday morning, resulting in the arrests of several people in the indictment. Three of the arrest warrants were served at addresses in the city, one was in New Jersey and another was in Indiana, police said. Other defendants are already in custody for other crimes, and warrants are outstanding for additional arrests.
Police said five guns recovered Wednesday will be used as evidence to investigate other unsolved shooting cases.
"We are continuing those investigations throughout the city. We are not letting up," Fritze said. "... They will continue until the violence ends."
The 19 defendants, including three who were not named pending their arrests, will be charged for their alleged roles in four homicides and more than a dozen non-fatal shootings. Most of the shootings occurred in parts of South and Southwest Philly. Some took place within days of each other, and at least one happened during a community memorial for a victim of gun violence, Walters said. In some cases, several defendants allegedly were involved in the same shooting.
The bloody scene of a gang-related shooting is shown in a photo from a Philadelphia grand jury investigation into nearly two dozen linked cases, including four homicides between 2022 and 2024.
The alleged gang members and their associates came from groups including CCK, the Young Bag Chasers (YBC), and the Parkside Killers (PSK), prosecutors said. Members of all three gangs — and several others — have been charged and convicted in numerous shootings and reprisals over the last decade.
The YBC gang, which originated in West Philly, drew headlines two years ago when 25-year-old rapper Abdul Vicks, aka YBC Dul, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Olney. Three people were later charged in the ambush that killed Vicks, whose drill rap earned him the nickname Mr. Disrespectful.
"(Vicks) stated publicly, over and over, that the way (drill rappers) fuel themselves, the way that they fuel their music, is via violence," Walters said. "We see that through their music videos in which they discuss victims of homicides, and we see that in retaliatory music videos."
Detectives and members of the grand jury investigated a pattern of gangs committing homicides that were celebrated online by the rappers in their cliques. Opposing groups would respond to each other with revenge killings and music videos claiming responsibility for them. The popularity of the music helped funnel money to the gangs, prosecutors said, even if the rappers weren't the ones pulling the trigger.
"If it's on YouTube, they're monetizing this," Fritze said. "Mr. Vicks talked about that as well. We're not dealing with drug dealers shooting each other. ... The corrupt organization is the fact that the citizens of Philadelphia are going on and watching drill music, and then the commercials come on and these gang members are getting paid."
The DA's office has reached out to several of the families impacted by the gang-related shootings to inform them of the arrests and charges filed Wednesday.
"Behind every case, there is a person. There is a family and a community member who is forever impacted," said Mariel Delacruz, director of the DA's victim services unit.
Fritze said many of the shootings the grand jury investigated were motivated by bragging rights among friends in the same gangs. When gang leaders get arrested or sent to prison, detectives often find that remaining members splinter off into new groups that perpetuate violence.
"Parents in this city, if your children are listening to violent drill music, you are causing part of the problem," Fritze said. "We need to get these kids off of drill music and get them off of YouTube watching these videos."
