as crack cocaine tore through washington dc a drug gang fought to take up authorities fought back with everything they had but gang members used any means to avoid prosecution as the violence raged out of control law enforcement [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] in the early 1990s washington d.c became the murder capital of the nation few were left untouched by gang violence which was ignited by the drug trade by 1994 that violence would strike at the very heart of law enforcement i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office would fall to the fbi to lead an international manhunt and bring in the leader of the city's most vicious gang october 26 1994 the nation's capital was about to become the backdrop to another bloody crime just before midnight three masked gunmen broke into a home in the northwest section of the city he had in his pockets the owner of the home william ragland was accosted while working in his basement upstairs one of the gunman discovered nancy hatchet and darlene hatchet fragrance daughter and granddaughter get out there to convince gaither to cooperate the gunman terrorized each of the residents [Music] denied having more cash or drugs one of the gunman turned his 22-caliber handgun towards right the 89-year-old retired federal worker died instantly andre madison another resident was hustled into the living room one of the three attackers noticed his gold necklace and ripped it from his neck enraged one of the gunmen began shooting the residents the robbery attempt collapsed into murder the trio quickly fled the house one of the attackers vomited near the back door nancy hatchett called 9-1-1 officers from dc's metropolitan police department quickly arrived at the house located in a known drug area inside three people were dead [Music] william ragland his granddaughter darlene hatchet and gerald gather pictures were taken of each body and shell casings were collected outside police discovered vomit near the door nancy hatchet and andre madison the only survivors tried to help police develop suspects but the attackers were masked making identification difficult [Music] for metropolitan homicide detective anthony brigadini a check on victim gerald gaither suggested a possible motive the main victim of the triple was a drug dealer in the first and kennedy street area the guy drove flashy cars had nice clothes had a lot of money when the drug dealer was unable to give them enough money and or drugs things started to get a little harried and that's when the shootings occurred inside neighbors told police that after hearing gunshots they saw a dark-colored sedan with a loud muffler leaving the area [Music] an all-points bulletin was issued for the vehicle and three men inside one hour after the murders two dc cops spotted a noisy vehicle that fit the report noticing three men inside the vehicle the officers police asked the men for identification [Music] the driver was identified as benny lee lawson the passengers were determined to be kobe moat and jermaine gray [Music] in one of their pants pockets police recovered a broken glory necklace but details from the murder scene were still incomplete [Music] the necklace was meaningless [Music] after recording all of the men's names and addresses the three were soon released there was no evidence in the car to connect them to the murders despite the lack of solid suspects homicide detectives believe that gerald gaither had been murdered by a rival drug gang by 1990 crack cocaine had hit the streets of washington d.c neighborhood gangs began to emerge throughout the city when it became clear that there was a lot of money to be made from dealing the drug fire as more and more money flowed to the gangs they resorted to violence to protect their turf from rival drug dealers by 1994 the nation's capital was averaging nearly 400 homicides a year dc police joined forces with the fbi on several federal agencies to combat the drug-related violence most of the murders remained unsolved [Music] hoping to rattle free a lead in the triple murder detectives began canvassing the neighborhood where the murders took place neighbors were too afraid to openly cooperate some were willing to phone in information anonymously [Music] one tip led to benny lee lawson one of the three men pulled over the night of the homicides investigators learned that the gold necklace taken from andre madison matched the one officers found on one of the men in lawson's car detective brigadini questioned lawson lawson's interview lasted about three or four hours and different detectives went in and spent some time with lawson in an attempt to get him to provide some sort of information about his involvement in the triple murder lawson repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the triple murder and refused to take a polygraph test [Music] investigators tried to shake his story with the false threat that they could put him at the murder scene through a dna test of the recovered vomit [Music] after four hours police had no choice but to release him [Music] lawson's name was run through the crime database he had been identified by police intelligence units as a member of one of dc's most violent and feared street gangs the first and kennedy street crew named after the city blocks the group lived on and controlled organized in 1988 the crew was involved in drug dealing theft kidnappings drive-by shootings and murder the men with benny lawson the night of the murders kobe moat and jermaine graves confronted him about the long hours he spent with the homicide detectives they believed he had snitched and told the police about the gang's involvement in the triple murder lawson was infuriated by the accusation he hated the police he assured the two that he had revealed nothing to investigators since no arrests have been made graves was confident the cops had no evidence he declared he would leave the country rather than be indicted for murder lawson vowed he would never go back to prison where he once had been raped lawson returned home that night being labeled as snitch was an insult to his loyalty towards the crew and for a gang member on the streets it was a death sentence he was committed to gaining back the respect of the crew proving that he was not a snitch [Music] [Music] on november 22 1994 a few days before thanksgiving benny lawson returned to metropolitan police department headquarters it was around 3 15 p.m he was trying to locate the homicide department he had visited several days earlier hey he asked two teenagers for directions they mistakenly led him to the cold case squad the team inside the office was made up of personnel from the mpd and the fbi whose job was to breathe life into the growing number of unsolved homicide investigations inside the office were fbi agents martha dixon martinez john kufta mike miller and metropolitan police sergeant hank daly the teenagers who were there for a scheduled appointment began to speak with the officers with no warning lawson pulled out his m11 assault handgun and started fighting the headquarters of the washington dc police was under attack repeated gunfire echoed through washington d.c police headquarters detectives raced to the third floor office where the shooting continued no one knew what was going on behind the locked doors of the cold case squad come on open up the door across town at the fbi's washington field office it was just a normal day like any other day and we were monitoring one of the police radios and we heard a call go out that there had been a shooting at mpd headquarters quickly determined the shooting was taking place inside the cold case office where several fbi agents were on duty and very quickly we started to page our agents that were assigned to the cold case homicide squad to try to account for all of them and as time progressed we weren't hearing back from some of the agents and we realized that that we we might have some agents inside there and as we listened the calls became more serious and they were requesting assistance critically wounded special agent john kufta was trapped inside the cold case squad office [Music] when the shooting had stopped you could hear the shouts from officers outside the office trying to get in [Music] help was just a few feet away at that point i heard a voice tell me they couldn't get in and i thought to myself you know i'm not going to die in here i thought of you know my wife my eight-month-old daughter at the time and and i knew that if i stayed awake if i continued to breathe if i continued to pray and if they got me to a hospital i'd be alive shot in the thigh arm stomach neck and chest krifta managed to open the door the only other visible person to the rescuers was metropolitan police sergeant hank daly barely clinging to life he was dragged from the room he was rushed outside where a helicopter waited to transport him to the hospital not knowing if the shooter was planning another ambush the officers waited for the swat team to arrive fbi agents and swat teams from around the capital converged on the metropolitan police headquarters yells continued from inside the room as the swat team arrived heavily armed they entered the movement they first discovered fbi agent mike miller's body his weapon was still in its holster in an adjoining room the swat team discovered the body of an unidentified black male there was a gunshot wound on his hip and a fatal wound to his head fbi agent martha dixon martinez was the final victim found she had gunshot wounds in her back near her lay the gun the shooter had likely used to kill her and the others an m11 assault women shouts for help came from inside a closet suspect in the closet open the door slowly not knowing if he was a suspect or an innocent bystander the swat team apprehended one of the teams who had walked in the room before the shooting began the other teenager had managed to flee the office earlier after being shot in the leg supervisory special agent mark giuliano and other agents arrived at the scene i just remember walking through the hallway and just seeing the chaotic scene and the blood and and just the the total a realm of emotions on everybody's face from you know being focused on on the mission of trying to figure out what happened and could there be other people involved based on the crime scene analysis investigators quickly reconstructed what had happened inside come over there and see in all those shows over there yes after miller kufta and daley were ambushed agent dixon martinez joined the fire fight she was able to shoot the suspect in the hip before being shot in the arm dropping her gun the attacker took her nine millimeter handgun and shot the agent in the back as she tried to crawl for cover [Music] he then put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger police fingerprinted the shooter hopefully his identity would shed light on his actions two fbi agents were dead sergeant hank daly would not survive his injuries it would be the first time in eight years that more than one fbi agent had been killed at a single time it was also one of the worst attacks in history on the dc police agent kufta would endure seven major medical operations before recovery the loss of his co-workers sergeant hank daly agents mike miller and martha dixon martinez was devastating martha mike and hank were law enforcement heroes they didn't as much lose their lives as gave their lives for a cause of justice for a cause that they so deeply believed within hours the investigation was moving forward the fingerprints of the shooter had come back when the information came up about the identity of the shooter a detective had the information came into a conference area where the majority of the homicide officials and detectives were and it was announced that the the shooter was benny lee lawson jr when homicide detective anthony brigadini heard the news he realized his squad was the probable target of lawson's rampage lawson and the first and kennedy street crew with a prime suspect triple murder of william ragland darlene hatchet and gerald gaither the shootings at headquarters showed just how far the gangs would go to protect themselves i think that law enforcement as a whole has learned that people operating gangs or crews are serious about what it is that they're doing they won't stop at at any cost to get their mission accomplished now that federal officers had been murdered the fbi was given jurisdiction in the investigation of the crew i was detailed to work jointly with the fbi to investigate the first and kennedy street crew who at that time we felt uh were responsible for um essentially lawson's actions here at police headquarters after joining the task force brigadini shared what he knew about benny lawson and the crew special agent john kerr was on the team for him benny lawson's connection with the first and kennedy street crew raised serious questions was this just a random act by many lee lawson or were there accomplices did he have any help in this where there will be any further attacks on on agents and police and so that was a reason that we opened up an investigation to answer those questions was this a conspiracy investigators obtained a search warrant that night for the house lawson had lived in please get out in his room they uncovered a note written to the members of the dc homicide unit who had interrogated him threatening to kill him gang related materials violent rap lyrics and drawings of murders were everywhere for investigators the items in lawson's room reflected a fixation with violence common to virtually all gang members it was very obvious and disturbing that these individuals were living this lifestyle this is the lifestyle that they uh were a part of this is the lifestyle that they identified with and wanted this they wanted to actually live the same life style as the as the lyrics that they were writing the pictures they were drawing and the videos that they had as the victims of the shootings were laid to rest investigators were planning their strategy to ensure that these gang members could never kill again with six homicides on their hands including two fbi agents and a washington d.c police detective a joint fbi mpd task force began gathering information on the first and kennedy street fbi agent mark giuliano headed up the task force and our goal was to a investigate the crew because they were a violent street gang and be to try to determine what the motivation was of benny lee lawson to come into police headquarters and do what he did and determine if there was anybody else involved at either end either in helping him get there to pull off what he did or helping the crew afterwards to cover up but it happened [Applause] in the wake of the shootings at mpd headquarters police pressure on gang members increased [Music] the crew members reacted by spending less time on the streets building a case against them for their criminal activity would be difficult the crew was impenetrable to outsiders planting an undercover agent inside the gang was too dangerous what we realized is that a we had a very close crew that is they they took care of each other and watched each other very closely but they were very very leery of outsiders they had been leery before but they were even more leery now and that any attempts for us to get somebody an agent or a police officer on the inside was uh was not something that we were going to even attempt to do instead agents would have to gather intelligence on the coup through covert surveillance as time went on the gang returned to business as usual the fbi was watching we had extensive surveillance coverage of the area day and night identifying everyone that came on the block identifying who the buyers were what time of day where did they go when they bought did they get into a car did they go into an alleyway did they do it hand to hand right there in front of you all these things we started to take notice of and document through surveillance the leaders of the crew were soon identified kobe moa and his second in command jermaine graves the two men in the car with benny lawson the night of the first triple homicide on the streets moat was known to be violent and unpredictable the reputation of kobe moat was that of of fear that he would react quickly at times he had a temper he always carried a gun and could be extremely violent at times looking into kobe's past investigators discovered he shared a common history with graves and with benny lawson their relationship developed in 1990 while serving together in washington dc's lorton prison located in northern virginia they had been arrested and convicted for weapons violations while preparing for a drive-by shooting another gang do you know what happened to me the task force members were convinced that moat and graves played some role in all six murders but the leaders of the first and kennedy street crew continued to keep a low profile agents devised a long-term strategy that would net not only moat and graves but also the entire gang membership they would slowly build a conspiracy case against the crew that would include the entire range of their criminal activities from crack cocaine trafficking yeah agents would work themselves inside by first targeting individuals who regularly purchase their drugs from the crew this would allow them to watch and record the gang committing crimes [Applause] and by arresting the buyers agents would have leverage to turn them into informants we'd come into an area when we thought that they'd be the most active in selling drugs and in order to identify someone and hopefully get lucky catch someone with some drugs and maybe force them to work for us at some point some of the buyers arrested were unwilling to cooperate at first the dangerous reputations of moat and graves were well known but the threat of long prison sentences was powerful [Music] the fbi strategy paid off threatened with significant jail time one of the biggest drug suppliers to the crew decided to become [Music] at the fbi's direction he would generate conversation with crew members about their illegal activities and he'd have conversations with them and they'd like to brag about what they've done and at our direction he would bring something up say an old drive-by shooting or an old murderer or something about drug dealing and these individuals would just start to talk about it talk about who was involved what happened all this was being recorded through the informant in the recordings agents learned that moat graves and lawson had killed previously less than three weeks before breaking into william ragland's house they had kidnapped and murdered another rival drug dealer what's up boy what up william red billy woods was a well-known dealer from a rival gang germain graves arranged to lure woods to his mother's house once there moat braved and lost and robbed him and beat him fearing the rival gang was retaliated against the crew they shot him three times and dumped his body [Music] also heard testimony from another informant that further implicated moat graves and lawson in the triple murder william ragland's first and kennedy he overheard benny kobe and jermaine graves talking about the triple homicide and one of the things that he mentioned that they were giving benny a hard time for was the fact that he threw up at the scene of the triple homicide that's something that only the homicide detectives knew and that we knew and had not been released to the public the information was only circumstantial but months of surveillance and informant testimony gave agents enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for the homes of kobe moat and jermaine graves they would strike at germain graves first a heavily armed swat team made their way inside his house no one was [Music] we were able to locate a nine-millimeter gun semi-automatic pistol as well as some crack cocaine what we believe to be crack cocaine one of the members on the squad took the information that we got from the gun and put together an affidavit for an arrest warrant based on the fact that it was a convicted felon in possession of a firearm for several weeks graves eluded investigators they continued surveillance hoping to turn up [Music] we really didn't know where he was we had some ideas we knew he was still in the metro area but obviously he knew once we hit his house that we were looking for him and where was on the street that we were looking for him so he was keeping a very low profile during one of our very standard surveillances i saw an individual who walked like jermaine graves just from the back i couldn't see his face so i asked one of the units to drive around the block and just take a look at the guy and the next thing i know they jumped out and arrested him they knew as soon as they pulled it on a corner it was him and he was arrested right on the street corner first and kennedy just a few months after the first triple murder graves was off the streets making a case against kobe moat would prove more difficult with the arrest of gang member jermaine graves on a weapons charge the fbi task force was one step closer to taking the first and kennedy crew off of the washington dc streets [Music] now agents were ready to serve a search warrant on the home of the crew's leader kobe moat a swat team entered the house shared with his twin brother kareem the two never knew what hit them [Music] investigators found gang-related documents drawings and writings and a small amount of marijuana [Music] they found no guns or evidence of the murders but that was not their prime interest the task force hunted for evidence of a larger crime pattern most of the evidence we were looking for at the time was list of crew members um shirts that they all wore with the the logo on them pictures phone books things that would associate this group together the twins were arrested on drug charges and taken in for booking [Music] kobe's time in jail was brief only his brother kareem's fingerprints were on the bag of pot [Music] kobe was released and the possession charge was dropped agents were determined to see him back behind bars you know what investigators continued developing informants from within the gangs [Music] they got the break they were looking for facing jail time on a drug charge a member of the first and kennedy crew agreed to cooperate finally investigators learned the answer to the question that had most plagued them why did benny lee lawson go into police headquarters and kill two fbi agents and an mpd sergeant yeah jimmy all right it started the night kobe moat jermaine graves and benny lee lawson broke into the home of william rightland the trio's plan had been to rob drug dealer gerald gaither jermaine graves became frustrated by gaither's refusal to cooperate and he snapped killing three of the residents overwhelmed benny lawson vomited outside the home to moat it was a sign of weakness the informant continued when lawson was brought in for questioning by investigators moat was sure lawson had snitched and killed he began to tell others in the crew that lawson was cooperating he was sitting around you know he was at the barbershop benny hated snitches he hated him he actually pistol-whipped one individual whom he thought was snitching and probably hated him more than any other crew member so to have kobe think that he was ratting or snitching on him and to go out to first and kennedy street crew and have the rest of the crew look at him as a snitch we believe was more than he could he could handle for agents and investigators it was now clear that kobe moat jermaine graves and benny lawson had committed the triple homicide agents took their case to the u.s attorney's office through these conversations and the cooperating witnesses plus the information that we that the police had from the car stopped the night of the triple murder was left us no doubt that they had enough to get a murder warrant for these guys for that for the triple murder it was also clear that kobe moat was part of the reason benny lee lawson murdered three investigators inside the metropolitan police department agents finally felt ready to go before a grand jury and present their conspiracy case against kobe moat and the entire crew among the 57 charges that were handed down were indictments for nearly a dozen homicides drug trafficking armed robbery kidnapping and racketeering already in custody graves was charged with three counts of felony murder an arrest warrant was issued for kobe moat investigators returned to his house this time he wasn't home the closets had been emptied the place looked like it had been abandoned [Music] in the trash investigators found a receipt for a plane ticket it appeared that kobe had kept his promise to flee rather than go to jail and the plane ticket was for just a few days before we hit the place and the plane ticket was from new york to moscow and at that point we knew that kobe had most likely fled not only the area but most likely the country moat was one step ahead of the agents they tried to pick up his trail in russia but he was nowhere to be found investigators discovered there was a flight departing to africa soon after he landed in moscow a check of the passenger list revealed nothing agents grew increasingly more frustrated moat was slipping away for six months fbi agents in washington d.c police tried to track fugitive kobe mohawk he could be hiding anywhere an international manhunt was underway we literally went months without a break um we went through hundreds and hundreds of documents that we had obtained during search warrants um during various parts of the investigation looking for overseas phone numbers looking for overseas relatives once again without a break after several months agent john kerr got a break through an informant he uncovered the name of an ex-girlfriend of kobe's we had come up with addresses for one of the addresses we came up with we subpoenaed the toll records and sure enough we found a collect call from kenya on one of her toll records and uh this was shortly after he would have arrived in africa agents brought her in for questioning she repeatedly denied knowing anything about kobe moat's whereabouts agents confronted her about the phone records if she continued to withhold information they would serve her with a grand jury subpoena she decided to cooperate she told investigators that kobe had in fact called her several times from nairobi kenya he had not called her recently [Music] she believed he might have moved on to tanzania the information was immediately passed on overseas you have to know where he is moat's phone call to his ex-girlfriend had originated from a hotel in nairobi [Music] a u.s department of state regional security officer in kenya followed the lead the hotel owner said he had no recollection of kobe moat agent giuliano receives the news and it becomes very very frustrating because once again we're getting no new information we're not getting a break and we know that the only tie that we have now is this hotel in nairobi kenya so we go back to the regional security officers and ask them to go back and reinterview the individual again the hotel owner insisted he knew nothing about kobe moat when shown photographs he seemed to hesitate the regional security officer kept pressing finally the owner asked for a guarantee that if he gave information kobe would never be told the regional security officer agreed to protect him he said kobe had in fact been to his hotel but he had left several months ago [Music] he gave the security officer a number that kobe had called while at the hotel the call was to the east african country of tanzania it took agents a few days to determine why the hotel owner protected the first and kennedy street crew leader what we determined is that kobe's mother was educated in jamaica and during that process she had befriended several individuals who ended up going to various parts of the world she had an association with this hotel owner in nairobi and she had made the contact to protect kobe and to help him you have a nice day thank you the phone number in tanzania eventually led investigators to a local college professor was a friend of kobe moat's mother the fbi asked the tanzanian national police department to follow the lead no the professor was unwilling to cooperate with the authorities certainly not a student the national police began their own investigation into kobe moat's whereabouts in their country as the search for the gang leader intensified in tanzania and police in washington dc continued to build their case against the first and kennedy crew they amassed volumes of evidence through surveillance and informant testimony over the previous year there were about 20 to 25 metropolitan police department officers and fbi special agents working on this investigation around the clock whether it was determining phone records or uncovering new murders that these guys had committed over the years on september 14 1995 officers and agents executed over a dozen arrest warrants they searched for any indication of the gang leaders whereabouts in africa they found nothing they collected additional evidence of a criminal enterprise they confiscated financial records guns drugs and gang paraphernalia some of those arrested agreed to cooperate in exchange for less jail time investigators were slowly taking all of the gang members off the streets in tanzania the search for kobe moat was heating up the national police force developed their own informants and learned that moat had in fact been in contact with the university professor they returned to interview him he once more denied knowing anything about kobe [Music] threatening the jamaican-born professor with deportation the tanzanian police convinced him to reconsider finally he admitted to helping moan find a place to hide out he offered to take the authorities there and this hut is literally out in the middle of the tribes people who are living in straw huts or actually just living on the ground right amongst the wild animals and amongst where they grow their crops it was the last place on earth authorities would have thought to look for moat unaware that the professor had betrayed his location moat was surprised to see the police approaching his hut he set fire to anything that could potentially identify but the police quickly moved in and bounced the flames while they searched for a reason to place him in custody they never told moat why they were there they also determined that out in the back he's growing a small amount of marijuana or what they call bongi and in that part of the the country it's a it's against the law and the penalty is 10 years in prison or a hundred dollars so they uh they bought him in based on that premise telling him that he was going to be incarcerated for that investigators in washington received the news that moa was in custody but time was working against them the tanzanian police could only hold kobe on the possession charge for a short period as a drug trafficker moet had plenty of cash on hand to pay the hundred dollar fine after days of diplomatic wrangling the arrangements for moat's extradition to the united states were finalized [Music] agent giuliano and detective brigadini traveled to tanzania to take him into custody investigators were finally face to face with the man who had eluded them for over a year [Music] when he came in kobe looked tired and uh he looked like he he had been defeated we explained to him what the charges were that he was being removed to the united states that he had been indicted in the united states for a variety of charges including several counts of first-degree murder and racketeering moat was on his way back to the united states where he and fellow gang members faced 57 indictments kobe moat and germain graves would be convicted on all counts they were each sentenced to 35 years in a federal prison [Music] moet's capture in africa allowed investigators to get the remaining first and kennedy crew members off the streets when we bought kobe back to the united states he just had a domino effect on the rest of the rest of the crew members eventually every crew member pled guilty because they they felt and actually told us that once they saw that we had found kobe in east africa and bought them back that they felt they didn't stand a chance fbi agents and dc police worked tirelessly to bring justice to the victims of gang violence but this case was also personal only after the entire gang was in jail could they have a sense of closure and feel they had vindicated the deaths of their friends sergeant hank daly and fbi agents mike miller and martha dixon martinez for agent john kufta who barely survived the attack at police headquarters the implications of this case were far-reaching when this group was locked up i think it sent a clear message to other criminal organizations out there operating in the district of columbia and in that tri-state area there that the fbi and the dc police will go to whatever lengths are necessary if it takes them to other continents to track you down and find you and bring you back to the united states to justice [Music] you