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WILKES-BARRE — With the surge of gun violence in the city within the last three weeks, police said Tuesday the suspect in a shooting in an apartment high rise hallway last month at Sherman Hills was captured in New York City.
Police said Keith Brian Hayes, 24, known as “Keefy Blood,” returned to his hometown soon after he allegedly shot Brandon Eubanks, 23, on March 23.
The shooting of Eubanks was the second incident involving gunfire that has surged in Wilkes-Barre since the middle of March. Two people have been killed and seven people injured in shootings.
Police Chief Robert Hughes has said the shootings do not appear to be related.
Mayor Thomas Leighton said police are stepping up saturation patrols throughout the city to combat the surge of violence, noting the police department’s tactical anti-crime unit have conducted more investigations of drug trafficking.
Former police chief Gerard Dessoye in 2013 reassigned the anti-crime unit to target drug traffickers in response to a similar surge of violence that included 13 homicides.
AG sweeps
While the city’s police department is pursuing drug peddlers, it has been two years since the state Office of Attorney General has conducted a widespread drug sweep of traffickers in Wilkes-Barre.
The last occurred in July 2013 in Operation Shape Up, which targeted a barber shop on Hazle Street that was the hub of cocaine and marijuana trafficking.
Leighton said most of the recent shootings took place on or near apartment complexes.
In previous years, a surge of violent crime spewing from the apartment complexes off Coal Street prompted undercover drug investigations coordinated by the Attorney General’s Office.
Operation Heavyweight in 2008 targeted 27 people associated with the Long Island Boys and Jersey City Boys street gangs while Operation Bloodstain in 2010 targeted 17 people with the Bloods street gang sect Murder, Money and Sex.
What sparked the attorney general coordinated drug investigations at Sherman Hills?
The deadly shooting of Aaron “Rockstar” Baxter, 22, an alleged member of a Philadelphia gang, in a hallway inside Building 332 Sherman Hills on June 19, 2008. No charges have been filed for Baxter’s death.
Then-Attorney General Tom Corbett said the Long Island Boys took sole control of the heroin market in Sherman Hills after Baxter’s murder.
When the Long Island Boys were arrested, the Bloods moved in to fill the heroin market until they were taken down by drug agents in Operation Bloodstain, the last widespread drug investigation at Sherman Hills nearly five years ago.
Carolyn Myers, spokesperson for the Attorney General, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Hayes case
Hayes was captured Tuesday by the U.S. Marshals in Manhattan on a warrant charging him with criminal attempt to commit homicide, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, reckless endangerment and illegal possession of firearms.
The warrant was issued for Hayes’ arrest several hours after he allegedly shot Eubanks in a second-floor hallway in the high rise at the apartment complex, according to the criminal complaint.
Eubanks suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including one round to his neck. Police said Eubanks continues to recover from the gunshot wound.
A surveillance camera recorded Hayes and another man walking in a hallway six minutes before the shooting. A witness not named in the complaint told police Hayes emerged from an apartment and confronted Eubanks in a hallway. During a fight, Hayes pulled out a handgun and shot Eubanks multiple times, the complaint says.
Police said Hayes fled Wilkes-Barre and returned to New York City after the shooting.
Hayes was jailed in New York to await extradition to Luzerne County, police said.