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Aunt reacts after DA reveals her niece was killed by Philly gang over mistaken identity
The aunt of Chaundrah Jones is speaking out after DA Larry Krasner said her niece was one in four victims mistakenly killed in murder-for-hire plot, shootings by eight suspects, seven of which were Philly gang members who have recently been charged.
PHILADELPHIA - 24-year-old Chaundrah Jones was out celebrating a birthday with friends in 2021, when officials say she was shot and killed in a case of mistaken identity.
Jones was shot & killed in the new car she had just proudly bought herself while working two jobs, just the week before her death in September 2021.
Philadelphia Police Homicide Chief said one of the two killers fired an AK-47 as long as his leg.
Chaundrah's aunt, who raised her, said her murder made no sense at the time. The District Attorney's office called her Friday to tell her she was right.
Philadelphia gang members charged in murder-for-hire plot, shootings that killed 4, injured 8
Law enforcement says they are dismantling a violent Philadelphia gang that has wreaked havoc across the city as they charge several members in yearlong investigations.
The DA said her killers targeted the wrong cars at 33rd & Diamond Streets with more than 40 gunshots for a gang contract murder. The gang members ended up shooting the wrong people- Chaundrah & her friends who were out celebrating a new year of life.
"They told me that they captured a gang of young men who were paid for hire, and they had the wrong car, so they went after the wrong people and so three young women get shot and my baby gets killed," said Tiffany Samuels, aunt of Chaundrah Jones.
Chaundrah was just one of four people the group of eight men now aged 19 to 25 are charged with killing within a 5-mile radius in Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion neighborhood over a two-year span. Prosecutors say they kept shooting & killing after Chaundrah's murder.
"It's hard to relive it, but it's also bittersweet to know they can't do it to nobody else and the fact that they kept going, they kept going they kept killing people, they didn't stop, they just kept going," said Samuels. "It's heinous."
"Big Naddy Gang" or "BNG" was formed after 15-year-old Nahmeer Johnson was killed in April 2021. Officials say the gang has used the teen's death as justification for their violent acts.
"BNG members are responsible for four homicides and eight non-fatal shooting victims," said Assistant District Attorney Joe Lanuti.
"BNG is history," DA Larry Krasner said Monday in a press conference condemning the gang's role in several fatal and non-fatal shootings carried out over several months beginning in 2021.
Chaundrah had a three-year-old son at the time of her tragic death. Now nearly three years later, he has become aware.
"He knows what happened," said Samuels. "He knows his mommy isn't here, and I just pray that now he has an answer as to why his mommy isn't here."