Ousmane Diallo

Introduction

Ousmane Diallo, 24, an alleged leader of the Brooklyn gang subset ICG Babiez, was charged in federal court this week with the 2022 drive-by shooting that killed 12-year-old Kade Lewin as the boy ate dinner with his family inside a parked car in East Flatbush — a mistaken-identity killing that shocked New York and sat cold for more than three years. Prosecutors say Diallo and alleged co-shooter Mayel Bussereth, 26, fired into a sedan they believed carried a rival gang associate; alleged getaway driver Jonah Luc, 25, was charged alongside them when the indictment was unsealed Thursday in Brooklyn federal court. All three pleaded not guilty and were held without bail.

Background Information

The ICG Babiez are a subgroup of the nationwide Insane Crip Gangsters — a gang founded in Long Beach, California — so nicknamed for the youth of their members, and prosecutors say the crew has terrorized Crown Heights and Flatbush with a spree of shootings since 2019 while targeting rivals from Folk Nation Gangster Disciples and the 8 Trey Crips. Being known as a “shooter” earned respect in the crew, federal prosecutors wrote in court papers, and members were expected to pay into a fund for incarcerated gangsters, with some allegedly committing bank fraud to bankroll the group. The feds called Diallo a leader of the gang with an extensive criminal history: he had pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery as a youthful offender and was on probation for a 2021 robbery when Lewin was killed, and he is now serving a 14-year state prison term after pleading guilty to two attempted murders in Brooklyn, one committed about a year after the drive-by.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not convicted. Diallo, Bussereth and Luc face a federal racketeering-murder indictment unsealed November 12, 2026; all three pleaded not guilty, none had a lawyer assigned as of mid-day Thursday, and no finding of guilt has been made on the murder counts.

On the evening of March 31, 2022, Kade Lewin, 12, was in the front passenger seat of a sedan parked near East 56th Street and Linden Boulevard, eating dinner with family members, when gunmen opened fire from a black Mercedes-Benz shortly before 8 p.m., prosecutors wrote. The boy was struck in the head and chest and died within 10 minutes; his 20-year-old female cousin was shot several times and survived, and an 8-year-old girl in the back seat witnessed the shooting unharmed. Prosecutors allege the shooters misidentified the car as belonging to a rival gang associate — the men drove from a Crown Heights apartment used by the gang, surveillance cameras caught the Mercedes circling the block, and the men returned with their faces apparently covered, per the court letter. A fourth person identified only as “CC-1” took the Mercedes’ driver seat and is not among the defendants.

The case broke open in 2025 when Luc, the alleged getaway driver, was nabbed on an unrelated check-fraud charge and admitted during questioning that he had been inside the Mercedes at the scene, prosecutors wrote. The indictment unsealed Thursday in Brooklyn federal court — Docket No. 26-CR-311 — charges Diallo and Bussereth with murder in aid of racketeering along with assault and firearms counts, carrying a mandatory life sentence and possibly the death penalty if they are convicted; Luc faces assault and firearms charges including causing Lewin’s death with a gun, with a potential sentence of 10 years to life, and Gothamist reports he too could face the death penalty. Bussereth, the alleged second triggerman, had been on pre-trial release in a gun-possession case at the time of the shooting and later pleaded guilty in that case, serving just under a year; Luc had been in New Jersey state custody when arrested, after pleading guilty to a violent Home Depot robbery, and a jury found him guilty in June on all counts of the fraud case.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The hearing landed on a family that had waited years for an arrest: Lewin’s mother, Suzette Lewin, burst into tears in the Brooklyn courtroom gallery as the men appeared before the judge, a friend rocking her back and forth, the Post reported. “She’s been waiting for a long time,” Pastor Gilford Monrose, the family’s spiritual adviser, said after the defendants were held without bail. “There’s no counsel that can prepare you for this. There’s only God.” Kings County DA Eric Gonzalez, whose office assisted the federal case, said Lewin “was just 12 years old when his life was tragically cut short by senseless gun violence.”

Federal officials framed the indictment as a warning to the crew: US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said the defendants “murdered a 12-year-old boy and shot another victim in a drive-by shooting in Brooklyn,” and that the indictment shows his office’s commitment to holding shooters accountable; NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the case “is yet another example” of the department’s work against gun violence. Court records showed none of the three defendants had a lawyer assigned as of mid-day Thursday, and prosecutors filed a detention letter asking a magistrate judge to keep all three locked up until trial.

Current Status

Diallo, Bussereth and Luc have pleaded not guilty to the unsealed indictment, were held without bail after Thursday’s hearing, and face trial on counts that remain unadjudicated — the charges are allegations, and as the Justice Department’s own release states, the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Diallo simultaneously continues serving his 14-year state sentence for two attempted murders; Bussereth has completed the short jail term from his 2022 gun plea; and Luc remains in custody, with his New Jersey detention and June fraud conviction keeping him behind bars through the federal case. The government’s case is being handled by EDNY’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section, with trial dates not yet publicly scheduled.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For more than three years the Lewin family had no arrest to point to, and the indictment converts a cold case into a capital-exposure federal prosecution: Diallo, already serving 14 years, now carries murder-in-aid-of-racketeering counts that mandate life or potentially death if proven; Bussereth’s path from a pre-trial-release gun case to a mandatory-life charge marks the crew’s trajectory; and Luc’s own cooperation-adjacent admission in the fraud case is what prosecutors say cracked the case open. The bust also documents the ICG Babiez’s internal economy — shooter status, incarcerated-member funds, alleged bank fraud — giving federal prosecutors a template for dismantling the whole subset rather than a single defendant.

Sources

@nypost trigger tweet (feds bust in Kade Lewin cold case), November 12, 2026. source
New York Post, “Feds bust 3 alleged Crip ‘Babiez’ gangsters in shocking NYC cold-case murder of 12-year-old,” November 12, 2026. source
US Department of Justice, EDNY, “Members of Brooklyn-Based Insane Crip Gangsters Gang Indicted on Racketeering and Firearm-Related Murder Charges,” November 12, 2026. source
Gothamist, “Feds say gang members killed 12-year-old in East Flatbush drive-by, targeting a rival,” November 12, 2026. source