Ra Diggs Murder Charge: Three Killings, Faces Death for Bragging

Brooklyn rapper Ra Diggs has been charged with three brutal murders, and may receive the death penalty, after bragging about one of the killings on Twitter.



According to reports, a Brooklyn Federal Court grand jury indicted Diggs, born Ronald Herron, on Monday (Feb. 13), for the killings, one of which dates back to 2001.

The Waka Flocka associate, who was also a member of Murda Team with fellow Brooklyn MC Uncle Murda and an alleged leader of the Murderous Mad Dog branch of the Bloods street gang, was arrested in late 2010, for participation in what police referred to as the Gowanus Drug Trade.

He has remained in prison since his arrest, defending his use of social media in an open letter, claiming he was "misquoted" and "demonized," and later placed in solitary confinement for being a "publicity hound," tweeting threats to cops and posing with guns on his MySpace page.

Initially charged in 2001, for the murder of Frederick Brooks, Herron beat the Supreme Court case when two key witnesses refused to testify, after allegedly being threatened by Herron's associates. In addition to Brooks' slaying, Herron is now being charged with the Gowanus Houses murders of Richard Russo in 2008 and Victor Zapata in 2009.

According to New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Herron tripped up when he tweeted that he "beat a body," and posted YouTube videos wearing body armor and firing handguns.

"His tweets were premature," Commissioner Kelly said.

"Ronald Herron and his gang terrorized a Brooklyn community for more than a decade and he temporarily got away with murder by threatening and intimidating witnesses only to return to the streets of Brooklyn to kill and kill again," added Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.

Herron's tweets, which included threats against fellow rappers Joe Budden, Rick Ross and 50 Cent, were no less incriminating than his lyrics, which prophesied his arrest.

"No father figure/ Raised by older cousins, help me serve n----s/ And help me burn n----s/ They gave me the hammers/ That contributed to the deathtoll and the bammas," he rapped in a song called 'Eulogy.' "Downtown Brooklyn, I'm a stop with all that/ Too much information would make me my own rat/ But I'm talking about facts, they lyin' in they raps."