Gary Creek, the founder of Baltimore’s Triple-C gang, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a three-hour standoff with police in Georgia.
Creek died on Tuesday in a unit at the Arium Morgan Falls apartments located in Sandy Springs, Ga, a city about 16 miles north of Atlanta, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Sandy Springs Police officers and U.S. Marshalls acted on a federal warrant for Creek’s arrest when he began shooting at them.
“When we were knocking at the door, he started firing shots,” U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Frank Lempka said.
The officers didn’t return fire, but they used the sound of Creek’s shots to find him. Creek had barricaded himself in an apartment with three hostages, one woman and two children. The unidentified woman and Creek knew each other, but she did not know he was a wanted man.
“She was not involved, was not aware, was not harboring or trying to hide him,” Sandy Springs Sgt. Sal Ortega told the AJC. “She was really an innocent person stuck in the middle of this bad situation.”
The unharmed hostages towards the end of the standoff. When SWAT entered the apartment, Creek was already dead.
Creek was considered a fugitive after he failed to surrender himself to authorities on June 3, reported WJZ. He was supposed to answer for charges related to federal racketeering indictment.
The indictment identified Creek as the purported founder of the Cruddy Conniving Crutballs, also known as the Triple-C gang. He started the gang after leaders of the Black Guerilla Family, another gang, announced members could join other gangs.
Creek and 14 other members of the Triple-C gang were linked to several crimes, 18 murders, 27 attempted murders. The gang members were also linked to carjackings, witness intimidation, robberies and assaults.
He was also facing drug conspiracy charges from 2019 and was released to home confinement in May 2020 due to the pandemic.
The rest of the indicted suspects are in custody.
