WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Eight suspected gang members tied to two fatal shootings in Palm Beach County have been arrested, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday.
Ennis Veillard, Andre Jean, Marquan McGraw, Jamaine Sampson, Harry Mason, Tylor Gaynus, Jadon James and Bobby Cooper are being charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder with a firearm. All but Cooper also face charges of attempted murder.
Palm Beach County deputies said they connected a double homicide at a Sweet 16 party off Belvedere Road in 2019 to a shooting at a party for high school seniors in 2021. Now, they said the eight men are connected to the 2021 shooting.
The suspects were linked to the shootings after Sheriff Ric Bradshaw directed detectives to investigate every instance in which a gun was collected or fired, Maj. Talal Masri said during a news conference.
"We went out to every shooting in the county that involved sheriff's office jurisdiction and collected evidence, collected videos, collected casings," Masri said.
Previously, deputies would collect guns taken from the streets and either store them or destroy them.
"We stopped doing all that," Masri said. "Every gun that comes into the sheriff's office by any means gets fired, tested and entered into (a national firearms database). Those casings get tested against other shootings anywhere in the nation, including in the county, of course."
Masri said the eight men are alleged members of the ZMF and 042 gangs.
Masri said the suspect in the shooting was previously arrested and is awaiting trial. However, these suspects were engaged in several retaliatory shootings – "at parties, at parks, streets, roadways, houses," Masri said.
The investigation began in 2019 when two teens were shot and killed at the Sweet 16 birthday party at Lake Belvedere Estates.
Two years later, deputies said friends of the teens and their families sought revenge, drove to a senior skip day at Ocean Reef Park in Singer Island, and opened fire on two people who survived.
"Here's the mentality you have with some of these gangs," Bradshaw said. "They think they can do what they want to."
Deputies said the eight suspected gang members were at the park on Singer Island targeting a man named Kenneth Bowles.
Some of the group suspected Bowles was the triggerman in the 2019 Lake Belvedere Estates slayings, but investigators said that wasn't the case.
Masri said another man is now in custody awaiting trial in those killings.
Bowles was shot and killed six weeks after the Ocean Reef Park gunfire in 2021, but no one has been charged.
"We are still working on it. We have an idea honestly," Masri said. "We need more information from the public. We're going to continue to investigate until we solve it."
Deputies said solving the Bowles' murder is the one outstanding element of this gang investigation that began with a double homicide in 2019, the alleged retaliatory shootings on Singer Island in 2021 and the killing of Bowles later that year.
There is a $3,000 reward for information for an arrest in Bowles' killing.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Crimestoppers of Palm Beach County Tipline 1-800-458-TIPS or 1-800-458-8477.
Bradshaw had a message for gang members who think they commit dangerous crimes in Palm Beach County and get away with it.
"We will track you down, we will take you back here to the county and we will put your butts in the county jail," Bradshaw said. "It's just that simple, and we're going to keep on doing it. This is the first round. Don't think for a minute that there won't be more rounds because there will be."
Chief Assistant State Attorney Craig Williams praised the investigative work of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
"This is one of the best investigations I have ever seen in my 26 years as a prosecutor," he said. "My heart goes out to them. Every single piece of work that they did was to lock these guys up. Now they're turning it over to us, and it's our job from this point forward to make sure that we get really long sentences so these guys can't get out and hurt anybody in the community again."
