Army Rangers SMOKED Some Crips in 1989...

saturday september 23rd 1989. an army ranger who had just purchased a home on one of tacoma washington's most gang-infested streets quickly became a witness to various illegal activity happening out front of his home he wasn't shy of confronting it or notifying the authorities and soon after he became the target of one of the most notorious street gangs washington state has ever seen and after shaking up the hornet's nest one too many times his home was ambushed by the hilltop cribs gang but not before he invited 15 of his ranger buddies over for a barbecue 300 rounds and 10 minutes later the crips were fighting for their lives [Applause] [Music] in 1989 the neighborhood of ash street in tacoma washington was an open-air drug market there were several hot spots in almost every house on the block was an active and thriving trap house these gang infestations in the 1980s born from the crack epidemic flooded the streets and created an economic downturn that defined the decade you might remember president ronald reagan declaring the war on drugs or his first lady who was just like just say no oh my god that well that was this time tacoma was washington state's ground zero of gang activity and by the summer of 1989 it had grown blatant middle of the day type [ __ ] like selling crack to the ice cream man type [ __ ] and this was all fueled by an influx of gang members moving in from california tacoma police had experienced nothing like it before and were really struggling to get it under control oftentimes not even knowing how to respond to it ash street neighbors consistently called police and called 9-1-1 repeatedly and got nowhere the typical response from police at the time was very mild community-oriented policing was a new thing such as taking [ __ ] calls and pretending like it's not [ __ ] yes ma'am i know you can't sleep when the dogs are barking but community policing was still viewed with suspicion by veteran cops who came up in the 60s and prefer the old ways like smacking people in the head with their portable radios at the time tacoma police chief ray faitland pushed these new community policing programs so far that the hilltop [ __ ] gang rose to power when the ogs from htc when we mount it up staff sergeant william fulk of the second ranger battalion 75th ranger regiment purchased his home on ash street in hopes that the neighborhood would soon turn around to protect that investment he was determined to help push the drugs and gangs out by any means necessary which may seem crazy to most people but staff sergeant full was not most people he was an elite operator who at a moment's notice could hit hard and smash [ __ ] everything you know ranger [ __ ] but violence was the last thing the staff sergeant wanted and he remained optimistic in the summer of 1989 folk returned from a december deployment in panama to find the neighborhood worse than when he left along with other neighbors who were honest hard-working people he formed a neighborhood group that pressed police demanding action the neighbors started making signs protesting and taking pictures of the drug dealers even as the tension on ash street rose chief faitland made a decision he would later regret hamstrung by budget constraints and desperately short on the patrol side he shifted four of six officers away from the hilltop crime management team to launch a community policing pilot project the neighbors on ash street reacted with dismay under fire from citizens and the city council a local tribune covered the controversy noting efforts by ash street neighbors to monitor the drug activity themselves after the news tribune piece drug traffic on ash street slowed but only so much staff sergeant folk was used to seeing more than 100 cars pass through his block on any given day and after the story appeared it was down to 20 cars polk decided to install a video camera on his upstairs window to record the traffic he organized a neighborhood barbecue as a show of public unity set for 3 p.m saturday september 23rd he invited neighbors friends ranger buddies and thought nothing more of it the day of the barbecue a group of hilltop [ __ ] gang bangers acknowledged folk outside of his residence and gave him the gun finger it came from a car full of crips driving by his house the index finger pointed thumb up a little flip of the hand the mouth words boom boom [Music] [Music] the gangster saw the video camera on folks house and a few hours later they returned and threw rocks at it someone else took shots at the house and the video camera with a bb gun folk and a few ranger buddies then walked across the street to confront the out of shape chain smoking gang bangers who think they're hard folk told them to stop throwing things at his home and the neighbor's homes to stop shooting bbs and to instead turn their lives around and find better ways the gangbangers warned him to take the camera out of his window the gangbangers suggested the staff sergeant didn't know who he was dealing with the staff sergeant suggested the gangbangers didn't know who they were dealing with they then told him your history [ __ ] and told them they were going to burn his house down and light him up as soon as the sun goes down folk decided to walk away and before he returned to his home he overheard one of the crips stating i'm gonna shoot that army son of a [ __ ] folk then walked inside his house he picked up his telephone called some more of his ranger buddies from the second ranger battalion and invited them over for a barbecue suggesting it wouldn't hurt if they came armed with translation bring your own bullets hey guys let's have a barbecue okay well yeah what are we gonna smoke just some crips [Music] including the few rangers who were already at the barbecue and the rangers called the total of rangers grew to 15. folk told them to bring personal weapons and whatever else they had they came armed to the teeth with handguns shotguns and rifles folk was armed with a browning nine millimeter and a cult python 357 magnum [ __ ] magnum who's who's the gangster now [ __ ] over a couple beers folk pitched to his buddies a defensive operation of his home stakeout locations and wait no first moves if police come disarm immediately cooperate and assist and all of his buddies joyfully agreed and were [ __ ] down they thought maybe nothing will happen but if it does zero tolerance for dudes shooting gats and smoking swisher sweets as the sun went down the rangers dispersed into their defensive positions alert and observant of any and all activity inside and outside the perimeter of the house a few hours had passed as the rangers held their positions one ranger observed a vehicle approaching in the distance at a slow rate of speed at which point the vehicle shut off its headlights folk with his magnum in hand returned the favor and turned out the lights in his house and in the yard at 9 20 pm as the vehicle approached someone within the vehicle fired a shot into the air the house was now taking fire from the rear where according to police reports small caliber automatic gun fire was heard the rangers opened a [ __ ] ton of fire but so did the hilltop crips one of the rangers william edwards was posted on the front porch when the shooting started he hit the ground as a bullet slammed into the wall beside him he and other rangers returned fire seeing figures running amongst parked cars on the other side of the street ranger russell nolte posted in the backyard crawled forward as a shot hit the back of the house three feet over his head ranger burr settles was posted upstairs by the infamous controversial [ __ ] video camera as a shot came through the window the bullet grazed his head and he received multiple lacerations on his face from the shattered glass numerous muzzle flashes were now seen from the east there were at least 16 shooters in three different locations the rangers again returned fire while outside the assailants took cover amongst the parked cars shooting over their shoulders ducking down shooting blindly you know stupid [ __ ] like that like gangsters do at this time a neighbor taking cover on her kitchen floor dialed 9-1-1 and just like the famous wild west shootout at the ok corral it was over in minutes 10 minutes to be exact the first police car came down the middle of the street cherries and berries on with his siren blaring the rangers dropped their weapons but as that first patrol car arrived on scene one of the hilltop [ __ ] gang members popped a round off sending the patrol car reversing out of the scene so quickly smoke was seen coming from the rear tires officers in the car reported hearing 50 to 60 shots in less than one minute shortly after more cops pulled into the block and the gang bangers ran [Music] [Music] the unarmed staff sergeant walked out the back door to his driveway and the alley behind his house he felt someone behind and didn't fight a hand shoved his head down and a voice ordered him to the ground one gang member by the name of frankie strickland was cornered by a police canine and found to be in possession of 16 rounds of 9 millimeter he said he was holding them for a friend but couldn't remember the friend's name you know like a [ __ ] liar he also said the same thing about the pistol he was carrying it was for a friend another suspect was carrying copper-headed rounds for a gas gun once the situation was under control and the officers learned about the rangers defensive operation the responding sergeant of the tacoma police department wasn't too happy about it he lectured folk and the other rangers for not calling the police for assistance until shots were fired [Music] and felt that the situation may have been avoided by calling 9-1-1 prior to the shooting getting started out of what was quite possibly a 35-man gun fight with over 300 rounds shot in the dark no one was reported to be killed or injured for 20 years the official version of the shootout held that miraculously no one was hurt but there are rumors injured gang members did not seek medical attention for obvious reasons and some may have even been mortally wounded and according to folk himself during the fire fight one gang member rushed towards folk's house i guess he thought he was gonna john wayne it folk remembered one of the rangers took aim and hit the gangster in the shoulder the attacker staggered back and ran away the moment goes unmentioned in police reports and witness accounts of the time unverified gossip holds that the wounded man was treated at a seattle area hospital over an hour away from tacoma doug sutherland who is mayor at the time pondered a declaration of a city-wide version of martial law to combat the gang violence that immediately drew national attention the city of tacoma found the dollars to add more police officers to their department then governor booth gardner even considered sending in the national guard to ash street the hilltop [ __ ] gang member who was arrested and found in possession of the 9-mil and the pistol frankie strickland was the only man charged in connection with the shootout he was convicted of second-degree assault and was later sentenced to 22 months in prison the military officially considered the incident a matter of self-defense for the off-duty rangers on february 9 2010 tacoma police and fbi launched a major crackdown on the hilltop [ __ ] gang and charged 32 members with up to 50 crimes everything from theft to attempted murder and drug sales a few years back a tacoma police officer said something about the shootout he said it was the single most important incident in tacoma that caused a change in police policies and practices staff sergeant william falk never moved away from ash street and as he predicted he was never promoted and left the army in 1993. he still owns the property to this day hey guys if you enjoyed this video be sure to hit that subscribe button there's a lot more of these historical crime breakdowns in the works and you don't want to miss them so be sure to subscribe and i'll see you guys in the next one thanks for watching goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Popo Medic

Views: 13,510,327

Keywords: army rangers crips, army ranger crip shootout, ash street shootout 1989, army ranger 1989, staff sgt william foulk, tacoma washington, hilltop crips, army ranger, army ranger bank robbery, special ops, spec ops, triple frontier, navy seal, delta force, marine raider, 75th ranger regiment, special forces, heist, norco shootout, norco bank shootout, north hollywood bank shootout, police, crime, robbery, shootout, craziest bank robbery, popo, medic, army ranger vs crips, tacoma pd

Id: Z4iQxpwYhAg

Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Thu May 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/smithsonian2021]

Some thugs really thought they’d get the drop on ARMY. RANGERS… some of the most elite warriors in the United States military? My Brother in Christ, rangers are built for combat. Just cause you “from the streets” don’t make you hard.

I’m gonna stop now because if I kept going, i would’ve stepped on a lot of people’s toes.

[u/VagabondRommel]

At first I thought it was just the homeowner/Ranger. Then the narrator said it was him and 15 other Rangers. Yeah those Crip boys got it good I can already tell lmao