A Brooklyn street gang leader was convicted Thursday of killing a government witness during a violent turf war in the East New York development, authorities said.
Malik Miller, 30, a leader of the Louis H. Pink House Ninedy Gang, ordered and helped plan the July 2020 killing of Shatavia Walls, 33, who took the stand to testify against one of Miller’s subordinates who shot and killed her in 2017, according to a statement from federal prosecutors.
Federal investigators have charged Miller with at least six counts in connection with her death, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering, and weapons and drug offenses.
Following a four-week trial in Brooklyn federal court, a jury found him guilty on each count, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He faces life in prison.
“Today’s sentence is significant in that it holds Miller accountable for orchestrating a despicable plot to murder a woman who bravely stood up to his Ninedy Gang. It also upholds the rule of law for the residents of the Pink Houses who want to live their lives and raise their children free from the violence and danger posed by ruthless criminals like the defendant,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
“While this sentence means Miller will spend the rest of his life in prison, we hope it provides some comfort to the family of Shatavia Walls.”
The shooting death of Walls on the night of July 7, 2020, was meticulously planned and carried out by the Ninedy Gang, just three days after Walls had a confrontation with gang members over setting off illegal fireworks at a housing complex on Linden Boulevard.
During the fight, Miller called Walls a “snitch” and then fired a gun into the air, prosecutors said.
Soon after, Miller and other members of the Ninety began plotting her murder.
The group already bore a grudge against Walls, who testified in a Brooklyn federal trial in 2019 that a fellow Loopy gang member from another apartment complex with deep ties to the Nineties had shot her two years earlier.
During that time, she was under intense pressure and gangsters had posted flyers around the housing complex saying, “Shatavia was a traitor and continues to be a traitor.”
Three days after the Independence Day incident, Ninety member Quintin Green, 23, and fellow gang member Joe Santana, 20, set up a trap, according to court documents.
The two men waited at the Pink House from the afternoon through the evening of July 7, waiting for an opportunity to shoot an unsuspecting woman.
Walls finally emerged from a building in the complex about 9:25 p.m., and that’s when Green approached him and began firing, federal agents said.
Prosecutors said Green was not an expert marksman and that the bullets missed their intended target and instead struck an innocent bystander.
Walls took off and Green followed, firing all the way.
The woman ran for her life and unconsciously sprinted toward Santana, who was a minor at the time, and then fired shots, prosecutors said.
Green eventually caught up with Walls and shot her to death behind a building on Linden Boulevard.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, Ninedy member Shakur Bey, 27, then threw the shooters’ clothes down an incinerator chute and set them on fire.
And gang member Kevin Wint, 30, rented a hotel room near John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens for the killers to hide out.
Walls survived for 10 days before finally passing away.
Green, Santana and Bey have already pleaded guilty to murder-related charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Wint, who pleaded guilty in March 2023, has already been sentenced to more than nine years in prison for his role, according to federal authorities.
“This kind of egregious violence, especially when used in retaliation to incite fear, has no place on our streets,” FBI Assistant Director James Smith said in a statement.
“We hope today’s guilty sentence brings some closure to Shatavia Walls’ family and serves as a deterrent to gangs who use violent tactics to further their criminal activities.”
