NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A member of a Suffolk-based criminal street gang will serve several years in prison for illegally possessing a firearm.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Tamarrea Deyon Walker, 25, was sentenced Thursday in federal court to 70 months in prison on a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
DOJ officials say Walker is a member of the YNGI gang.
In April 2019, Walker and a fellow gang member brandished firearms and shot at two rival gang members.
Those rival gang members fled to a car and left the scene, then, Walker and four other gang members from YNGI got into their own car and chased the two they had shot at.
Both cars shot at each other while driving.
The driver of Walker’s car was shot in the chest, causing him to press hard on the gas, speed through an intersection and crash head-on into another vehicle.
Officers arriving at the scene of the crash saw Walker rummaging around the vehicle and an extended 9mm magazine on the ground at his feet.
Officers recovered more than 30 grams of heroin and four guns in the vehicle, including a Masterpiece Arms 9mm handgun.
A photo posted on Instagram days before the crash showed Walker holding that Masterpiece firearm with the extended magazine.
“Reckless actions by violent criminals are a dangerous threat to our community,” said Martin Culbreth, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office. “The only way to defeat this type of gang violence is for law enforcement to work together as one team, and the Tidewater Violent Crimes Task Force represents the commitment of law enforcement partners at every level to target the gangs and criminal enterprises that drive violent crime in Hampton Roads.”
