A newly unsealed federal racketeering indictment accuses five alleged members of the South Side O-Block street gang of committing last year’s brazen Gold Coast murder of rapper FBG Duck.
Charged with murder in aid of racketeering are Charles “C Murda” Liggins, 30; Kenneth “Kenny” Roberson, 28; Tacarlos “Los” Offerd, 30; Christopher “C Thang” Thomas, 22; and Marcus “Muwop” Smart, 22. The charge carries a minimum of life in prison and a potential death sentence.
The men are also charged with assaulting two additional unnamed victims in aid of racketeering, as well as firearm offenses.
Chicago Police Supt. David Brown and U.S. Attorney John Lausch told reporters they hope the charges send a strong message to other gang members that they will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.
“If this gives pause to them then we’re doing something good,” Lausch said at a news conference at the FBI Chicago field office. “And we’re going to continue to do more of this.”
U.S. Attorney John Lausch speaks about the efforts and impact of the investigation during a news conference at the FBI Chicago Field Office to announce arrests and federal charges in connection with the shooting and murder of FBG Duck, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Lausch and Brown acknowledged concern for retaliation in the form of “street justice” following the charges.
“We are going after gangs in this city,” Brown emphasized several times at the news conference.
Liggins, Offerd, Thomas and Smart were arrested early Wednesday morning and appeared in court later in the afternoon. Their attorneys pleaded not guilty on their behalf, and a Friday detention hearing was set only for Offerd. Attorneys for the other three said they’d likely seek their release at a later time. All four will remain in custody for the time being.
Roberson was already in the custody of the Cook County Department of Corrections. He is charged with murder in the Jan. 30 shooting of Lorenzo Moore in Dolton, according to Cook County court records. They show he’s also facing separate gun possession charges from 2019.
Kenneth Roberson
Cook County Sheriff’s Office
FBG Duck, whose real name was Carlton Weekly, was shot to death the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2020, in the first block of East Oak Street as shoppers milled about. Police said he was on the retail strip around 4:37 p.m. when two vehicles pulled up and four people exited before opening fire. The 26-year-old was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Another man and woman were also wounded.
The rapper’s mother said he was shopping for a birthday present for his son — one of his four children — when he was killed. She later went to the scene of the murder to ask that no one commit any retaliatory shootings in his name.
On social media, FBG Duck had recently made “derogatory statements toward deceased members of the Black Disciples” — a possible motive for his fatal shooting in the heart of the luxury shopping district on Oak Street, police said.
“Generally speaking, what’s happening on social media, and what’s happening in music videos that are on YouTube, particularly in the drill-rap genre, it shows you what’s happening in this city ... which is that people are threatening to commit acts of violence, and then either bragging about acts of violence or talking about how they’re going to retaliate for other violence, it’s happening on a regular basis,” Lausch said Wednesday.
FBG Duck associated with a faction of the Gangster Disciples street gang called Jaro City, which was based near 62nd Street and Vernon Avenue in West Woodlawn, police said at the time. But on social media, he identified himself as a member of the Gangster Disciples faction called STL/EBT, which is in the same area and mostly friendly with Jaro City.
Police also said last year there was a “high threat level” in an ongoing conflict between those Gangster Disciples and the O-Block faction of the Black Disciples from the Parkway Gardens apartments near 63rd Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
Odee Perry, a member of a Black Disciples faction in Parkway Gardens, was shot to death in 2011, and the faction was dubbed O-Block in his honor. Perry’s killing sparked a series of retaliatory shootings — including the 2014 murder of Gakirah Barnes, who police say was a female gang assassin for a Gangster Disciples faction in the neighborhood.
FBG Duck was also affiliated with the Fly Boy Gang, a group of rappers.
According to a Chicago Sun-Times story in 2017, his brother Jermaine Robinson was a rapper who went by FBG Brick. He and a friend, Stanley Mack, were shot to death in Woodlawn in July 2017.
Contributing: Frank Main, Matthew Hendrickson
