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Feds say gang members killed 12-year-old in East Flatbush drive-by, targeting a rival
By
Charles Lane
Published Nov 12, 2026 at 2:12 p.m. ET
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Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Charles Lane
Published Nov 12, 2026 at 2:12 p.m. ET
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Federal prosecutors have charged three men in the 2022 drive-by shooting that killed 12-year-old Kade Lewin in East Flatbush — saying the men were targeting an associate of a rival gang and fired into the wrong car.
Ousmane Diallo, Mayel Bussereth and Jonah Luc are members and associates of a Brooklyn gang called ICG Babiez, prosecutors wrote in court papers Thursday. A letter from prosecutors asks a federal magistrate judge to keep all three locked up until trial.
Court records showed none of the three had been assigned a lawyer as of mid-day Thursday.
“The senseless killing of a 12 -year-old boy in March 2022 is just one example of the violence ICG members and associates commit that endanger the lives of Brooklyn residents,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. and prosecutors wrote in the letter.
Lewin was in the front passenger seat of a sedan parked near East 56th Street and Linden Boulevard when shots were fired into it from a black Mercedes-Benz on the evening of March 31, 2022, according to the letter. The boy was hit in the head and chest and died within 10 minutes, according to prosecutors.
A woman in the car was shot multiple times and survived, prosecutors said. An 8-year-old girl in the back seat was not hurt.
The men “misidentified the car that they believed the rival gang associate was in,” the letter states.
Prosecutors allege Diallo and Bussereth fired the shots. Each is charged with murder in aid of racketeering, along with assault and firearms charges, and faces a mandatory life sentence or death if convicted.
Luc is charged with assault and firearms counts, including causing Lewin’s death with a gun. Prosecutors say Luc admitted he was inside the Mercedes at the time of the shooting. He faces between 10 years and life imprisonment, and could face the death penalty.
A fourth person, identified in the letter only as “CC-1,” got into the driver’s seat of the Mercedes, prosecutors wrote. That person is not among the defendants.
Surveillance video followed the car from a Crown Heights apartment used by the gang, according to the prosecutors. They say it caught the car circling the block before the shooting and showed the men returning with their faces apparently covered.
Diallo, whom prosecutors call a leader of the gang, was on probation for a robbery when Lewin was killed.
He is now serving 14 years in state prison after pleading guilty to two attempted murders in Brooklyn, one of them about a year after the drive-by.
Luc is in New Jersey state custody for a probation violation. A jury convicted him in June of stealing government funds in a separate federal case.
Bussereth was on pretrial release in a gun case at the time of the shooting, according to prosecutors.
Tagged
brooklyn
public safety
Charles Lane
Charles is a Day-of reporter focused on breaking news and enterprise. He’s very friendly and can be reached at [email protected], or more securely on whatsapp/signal 631-295-6715
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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