8 Feb 22nd–Feb 28th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | colors,” she said. In a November press conference, Mitchell was asked about the murder of Jake Kelly, a gay man brutally beaten to death in North Phoenix in September. Jan Kelly, Kelly’s mother, wanted to meet with Mitchell, and a reporter asked if the county attorney would do so. Mitchell replied that she doesn’t usually meet with family members of victims, leaving that to her prosecutors. Reminded of this at the Jan. 24 press conference, Mitchell agreed that she doesn’t normally meet with grieving victims. But in the Lord homicide, she explained, she did so to combat “misinfor- mation” being spread about the case. She wanted to explain to Lord’s parents the process to indict possible suspects. New Times then asked Mitchell if the media was driving the Lord investigation. She said no. This case was “extraordi- nary” given the size of the police report and “because there are so many people who potentially were witnesses.” That necessi- tated the additional staff working on the investigation, she explained. Are the Gilbert Goons really a gang? As for the Gilbert Goons, despite the massive amounts of near daily attention they’ve received since the Arizona Republic published its investigation in December, they are hardly the only criminal group in the Valley. Heston Silbert, former director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety and an authority on street gangs, called them a “hybrid gang” — a criminal street gang with a nontraditional structure. A hybrid gang is less established and may be short- lived, but it can be as violent as better- known gangs, he said. “These Gilbert Goons, they’re a hybrid gang that pops up and goes down, but they’re nonetheless a gang,” Silbert told New Times. Silbert said metro Phoenix is plagued by several hundred gangs. Arizona law defines a criminal street gang as “an ongoing formal or informal asso- ciation of persons whose members or associ- ates individually or collectively engage in the commission, attempted commission, facili- tation or solicitation of any felony act and that has at least one individual who is a crim- inal street gang member.” The law specifies that a “criminal street gang member” must meet two of seven criteria, such as having gang tattoos and self-identifying as a member of a gang. DPS declined to provide the names of the Valley’s most violent and active gangs. “As a matter of policy, we never discuss individual gangs in Maricopa County. We never want to give them publicity,” DPS spokesperson Bart Graves said in an email. But news reports from recent years offer numerous examples of gang activity in metro Phoenix. A 2020 news story from Channel 12 named the Westside Crips “the most arrested gang in Maricopa County,” followed by the Aryan Brotherhood, the Peckerwoods MC, the Mexican Mafia and Southside Mesa. In June 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona announced indictments for “conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, or both” for 22 members of the Lindo Park Crips. A Fox 10 piece in January 2023 described a fatal drive-by shooting, allegedly by two members of the West Side City Crips. And a September 2023 press release from the county attorney’s office lauded Deputy County Attorney Dan Fisher, who received an award for “two trials involving the prose- cution of members of the West Side City Crips, one of the largest gangs in the Valley.” And recently, New Times has reported on two gang-related murders of gay men in the Valley. Yet, the Gilbert Goons — at least for the moment — have a monopoly on media attention. Silbert put it all into perspective. “The people in Gilbert and Queen Creek, in particularly the victim’s family, should be devastated and outraged by what happened,” he said. “But every senseless murder that happens should receive the same type of outrage,” he added. “Unfortunately, they don’t.” Left: Preston Lord died on Oct. 30, two days after he was attacked in Queen Creek. His death sparked outrage about teen violence in the East Valley. Right: Jake Kelly was beaten and left in the driveway of his north Phoenix home on Aug. 27. He died from his injuries on Sept. 8. (Photos courtesy of Justice4PrestonLord and Jan Kelly) Ganging Up from p 7
