15-Year-Old Sharell Butler was known on the streets as Lady Red. Before being charged with two gruesome murders Sharell, a member of the Bloods, already had been arrested for assault twice. Now she is being charged in the brutal murders of two men targeted by her and her gang affiliates for robbery and to settle old scores. At the tender age of 15 Sharell Butler is now being charged as an adult in murders considered shocking and brutal even by New York City standards.

From The New York Times:

Sharell Butler, 15, seemed so slight that those who knew her wondered how she could have done what she stands accused of doing: killing two men in the span of 48 hours.

“I don’t think she would have had the strength,” said Angel Rodriguez, 34, who owns a tire shop on Poplar Street in the Bronx, on the same block where Ms. Butler lives.

But the criminal complaints against her, made public on Saturday night after her arraignment in Bronx Supreme Court, belie her delicate appearance, offering a dry, dispassionate and succinct account of the murders she is accused of committing.

With the help of a man, Ms. Butler “caused the death of John Hopkins-Drago by repeatedly stabbing him with a knife,” one complaint says. The other states that she “did cause the death of Christopher Umpierre by shooting him.”

Ms. Butler has been charged with murder, manslaughter, assault and weapon possession in the death of Mr. Hopkins-Drago, 22, of 548 Edison Avenue. His mutilated body was found in a plastic bag on Dec. 21 outside 2161 Barnes Avenue, less than two miles from her home and, according to the complaint, about four blocks from the apartment where he was killed, on Pelham Parkway South. He had been stabbed more than 30 times in what the authorities have called a gang attack.

She also faces second-degree murder and robbery charges in the death of Mr. Umpierre, 24. The police said he was killed during a botched holdup in an apartment at 2829 Dewey Avenue, in the Bronx, on Dec. 19.

Ms. Butler pleaded not guilty to all charges at her arraignment on Saturday and was ordered held without bail. She had been arrested that day and was carrying a handgun when she was caught, according to the criminal complaint.

Apparently she got pinched, according to reports, when 23-year-old pot smoker James Medina ratted her and probable boyfriend 19-year-old Robert Pastore after cops received a Crimebusters tip and arrested him.The Daily News is reporting that John Hopkins-Drago may have been killed because he talked to cops about a robbery he witnessed Pastore pull. Drago was apparently a homeless drug addict. He was stabbed 40-50 times by butler and crew.

James Medina is charged with hindering prosecution for his act of cleaning up one of the crime scenes and marijuana possession. Four other suspects are in custody, but how did a 15-year-old girl get caught up in all this and? Was it just her family failing or does New York bear part of the blame? Where were her teachers? Where was social services? Where were all the community organizations that milk the taxpayers for money to improve teens’ lives when this young girl was running the streets with this violent gang?

I left New York because the area is crumbling under the weight of social decay. Children like Sharell Butler are a symptom of that. She may well have never committed a crime at all had she been raised elsewhere, but the City claimed her as she claimed the lives of two men while New Yorkers looked the other way.

The Gothamist has family reactions. Via Breitbart here’s a video report:

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