Detroit gang member gets 25 years for revenge attack captured on FBI pole camera

An east-side Detroit gang member is going to prison for 25 years for a revenge killing that claimed the lives of a rival gangster and a 13-year-old innocent bystander, and injured two more children who were sitting on the roof of a car.

“Today’s sentence is a stark reminder of how gun violence devastates our community and is robbing innocent children of their future," U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said Thursday following the sentencing of Carlo Wilson, a 29-year-old former gang member who admitted to his role in a revenge killing that left two people dead, including a child.

Wilson, a former member of the 6 Mile Chedda Grove gang, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith after pleading guilty last year to racketeering conspiracy for gang-related crimes committed between 2008-16.

3 children in line of fire

In his plea agreement, Wilson admitted to participating in the 2015 fatal shooting of a rival gang member and a teenage girl who were both in a vehicle outside the Troester Market at Hayes and Troester. A second 13-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother were sitting on the hood of the same vehicle when Wilson and his cohort rushed the car on foot and opened fire, court records show.

According to prosecutors, Wilson and his accomplice intended to kill the driver as revenge for the killing of a fellow gang member. As they shot at the car, the vehicle moved and the two children slid off the hood.

The driver was shot and lost control of the car, which ran over the two children as it rolled across Hayes before crashing into a vacant building across the street. The shooting was captured by FBI pole cameras.

Wilson and his cohort fled the scene.

The driver died at the scene. His 13-year-old passenger also was shot and died en route to the hospital.

The other teenage girl was hospitalized for weeks with a fractured leg. Her 7-year-old brother, who was pinned under the vehicle until bystanders lifted the vehicle off him, was treated for abrasions and bruising.

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Wilson's accomplice, Edwin Mills, also pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Wilson's lawyer had asked for a 22-year-prison sentence, citing, among other things, his client's learning disability and turbulent youth.

"Mr. Wilson was exposed to extraordinarily high levels of violence during his developmental years, including the murder of his father when he was 11 years old, which he learned about on the television news," Wilson's lawyer Jacqueline Walsh argued in court documents, adding: "Mr. Wilson has accepted responsibility for his conduct and has expressed genuine remorse."

11 gang indictments in broader case

But the government portrayed Wilson as a brazen killer who terrorized a community with violence, and chose loyalty to his gang over everything else.

"Because of his actions in furtherance of 6 Mile Chedda Grove, a young man and a child are dead," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Picek and Robert Moran argued in court documents. "In broad daylight, in the presence of innocent bystanders — including children — Wilson chose to exact revenge for his gang by shooting at a rival. The prospect of injuring and even killing others, who were plainly in his line of sight when shooting, did not deter his behavior. Wilson’s loyalty to 6 Mile was all that mattered to him."

Prosecutors argued that Wilson deserved 25 years in prison for his crimes. The judge agreed.

Wilson and Mills are part of a bigger case that emerged in 2018, when the federal government announced charges against 11 gang members wanted for a slew of violent crimes and violating the so-called RICO Act — theRacketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act that has long been used to combat organized crime.

Of the 11 indicted defendants, all pleaded guilty and just one still awaits sentencing.

Contact Tresa Baldas tbaldas@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit gangster Carlo Wilson sentenced to 25 years