Rival gangs arrested in one of NYC’s largest takedowns

The Hatfields and McCoys of a Manhattan public housing complex were rounded up Wednesday morning in the biggest gang takedown in city history.

Some 500 cops descended before daybreak on the Manhattanville and General Grant houses, where a violent turf war has raged across 125th Street for decades.

There, cops rousted and arrested 40 accused conspirators from the gang “3Staccs,” and its enemy gangs, “Make It Happen Boys” and “Money Avenue.” Another 40 suspects are being arrested in the jails and prisons where they were already held on other charges. Some 20 suspects remain in the wind.

The takedown comes two years after the senseless murder of rising basketball star Tayshana “Chicken” Murphy, 18, who died when three gun-toting Manhattanville thugs went looking for a random victim from Grant after one of their own was beaten up hours prior.

Tayshana “Chicken” Murphy was killed in 2011.David McGlynn

“Ville up hoe,” one of the young murderers, a member of the Make It Happen Boys, had snarled on Facebook an hour after the shooting. The callous boast indicated his Manhattanville Houses had evened the score.

“Who the f— shot Chicken cause they dead,” a 3Staccs member quickly threatened on Facebook, according to court papers.

“I like my Chicken deep fried,” another gangster meanwhile taunted.

Murphy — a senior at Murry Bergtraum High School who dreamed of breaking the NFL gender barrier — died in a stairwell in her Grant Houses building. She was ranked the country’s 16th best point guard in her class nationally.

“The deadly and dangerous feud between Manhattanville and Grant Houses dates back decades,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. said in announcing the charges.

Robert Cartegena

“To build a case this extensive, prosecutors and investigators analyzed more than 40,000 calls from correctional facilities, screened hundreds of hours of surveillance video, and reviewed more than a million social media pages,” Vance said.

The three gangs were responsible for two homicides and a total of seventy non-fatal shooting incidents in the past four years, officials said. The gangsters recruited boys as young as 10 to carry guns and relay messages, officials said.

“The many law-abiding members of the communities afflicted by this violence are now walking on safer streets,” said Police Commissioner William Bratton, whose Gang and Intelligence divisions worked the case, along with the 26th Precinct and PSA6.

A 57-year-old grandmother who lives at the Grant Houses said she was pleased to see the raid but didn’t believe it would have a major impact on neighborhood violence.

“I worry about my grand kids out here playing in the park. Anyone could get hit when they shoot,” she said, pointing to the front of the the building where Murphy was shot.

The NYPD rounds up members of three rival gangs.David McGlynn

“It’s just sad. All of this mess should have been over when that poor child [Murphy] was killed.”

“There are more of them, just waiting to fill their shoes,” the grandmother said of those arrested.

A Manhattanville Houses mother held hope that better days are ahead.

“I’ve got a 9-year-old son. I worry about his safety,” said said, following the sweep. “This craziness between `us and them (gang turf wars)’ has been going on for years and it really needs to stop before more kids get killed.”

The DA’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit is heading the prosecution; more than 300 accused members of 16 street gangs have been indicted an more than 900 illegal firearms have been confiscated since the unit was created in June 2010, Vance said.

One of those prosecutions involved another longstanding, deadly, four-year turf feud between Johnson and Taft houses across town in East Harlem. Last month, the DA announced the guilty pleas of the final two gang bangers out of a total 62 convicted.

“That case had an enormous impact on crime in that area,” Vance said. During the period from October 2009 to April, 3, 2013, before the Johnson/Taft takedown, there were seven homicides, 46-non-fatal shootings, and 17 shots fired in East Harlem’s 23rd Police Precinct , he said. Following the takedown, there have been two homicides, three non-fatal shootings, and zero shots fired in this same area.