LOS ANGELES – Five alleged members of street gangs based in Altadena and Duarte have been arrested on federal charges of being felons in possession of firearms or ammunition during a shootout in Ontario that investigators say was part of an ongoing dispute with a rival gang, the Justice Department announced today.
According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, all five defendants used firearms during the February 17 incident, which occurred during a funeral party for a suspected member of the Altadena Bloc Crips (ABC). Investigators with the Ontario Police Department believe the shooting was the result of an attack by the Pasadena Denver Lane Bloods (PDL), which has been in a long-running gang war with ABC and its allies in the Duarte-based Duroc Crips, the affidavit states.
Surveillance video from the house where the shooting took place “showed that once the PDL members fired the initial shots, at least five subjects from the ABC funeral party ran from the home’s backyard into the front yard and began firing recklessly toward the unidentified PDL members,” according to the affidavit by an ATF special agent, which notes that bullets struck several homes and vehicles in the neighborhood.
The defendants charged in the criminal complaint, all suspected members of the ABC or Duroc Crips gangs, are:
During court appearances on the day of their arrests, Lyndolph was ordered held without bond, Taylor was ordered jailed pending a detention hearing scheduled for August 10, and both Roach and Nunley were released on bond. Arraignments for the defendants in this case are scheduled for later this month.
A criminal complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The charge of felon in possession of a firearm or ammunition carries a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
This case is the product of a joint investigation between ATF and the Ontario Police Department. The United States Marshals Service provided substantial assistance.
The investigation used intelligence developed by the Los Angeles Crime Gun Intelligence Center and the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN). NIBIN is the only national network that allows the capture and comparison of ballistic evidence to aid in solving and preventing violent crimes involving firearms.
NIBIN, which is used to link incidents by determining when there is a common firearm, produced multiple intelligence leads during this investigation. The affidavit states that NIBIN linked multiple shooting incidents between October 2020 and the February shoutout, including homicides in Ontario and San Bernardino. As of now, all the incidents are the subjects of open and active investigations, according to the affidavit.
Assistant United States Attorneys John A. Balla and Peter H. Dahlquist of the Riverside Branch Office are prosecuting this case.
The ongoing federal investigation is part of the Firearms Trafficking Strike Force launched last month by the Department of Justice.
