The FBI is going after a small South Side gang faction called Faceworld that police suspected in a shooting that left 15 people wounded outside a funeral in 2020.
Diontae Harper and Amonti McClure, reputed members of the Faceworld faction of the Gangster Disciples, were indicted this month in federal court on charges of participating in violent racketeering activity.
Harper, 24, and McClure, 21, carried out attacks on rivals, including the Wuga World, Disciples of David and 900 gang factions, according to the Dec. 5 indictment.
Like other gang crews involved in the “drill rap” scene in Chicago, Faceworld sought to boost its status using songs and videos on social media, the indictment says.
Keshawn Wordlow, 21, also was involved in the conspiracy but isn’t listed as a defendant, according to the indictment. Wordlow is charged in a separate federal case with participating in a 2020 carjacking spree. In November, his lawyer signaled that Wordlow was thinking about changing his not guilty plea, according to court records.
The Dec. 5 indictment states that Harper, McClure and Wordlow were involved in the fatal shooting of Paul Harris on May 13, 2021.
Harris, 22, was sitting in a vehicle in the 8600 block of South Halsted Street around 5:55 p.m. when two people walked up and started firing, according to Chicago police. He was hit in his head and body. The murder was “for the purpose of maintaining and increasing position in Faceworld,” the indictment says. Harper is accused of pulling the trigger.
The indictment doesn’t mention it, but Chicago police investigators had suspected that Faceworld and Wuga World were in a war in 2020 that led to a mass shooting outside a South Side funeral home.
The feud exploded into violence on July 13, 2020 when 21-year-old Faceworld member Tremoni Pace was fatally shot in the 8000 block of South Stewart Avenue, police sources said.
The next day, Donnie Weathersby, a 31-year-old Wuga World member, was killed in a drive-by shooting in the 7400 block of South Stewart Avenue. At the time, sources said they believed Weathersby was killed in retaliation for Pace’s slaying.
On July 21, 2020, 15 people were wounded in a shootout near Rhodes Funeral Home in the 1000 block of West 79th Street, where a service for Weathersby was being held.
Before the service, the Chicago Police Department warned officers about the possibility of violence at the funeral home because of the ongoing conflict. Squad cars were parked nearby.
It doesn’t appear that arrests have been made in the funeral shootings — or the killings of Harris, Pace and Weathersby, according to police and court records.
The Dec. 5 indictment against Harper and McClure follows a pattern. In recent years, the feds have used powerful racketeering statutes to try to destroy small but violent gang crews.
Currently, reputed members and associates of “O Block,” a Black Disciples gang faction based near 64th and Martin Luther King Drive, are on trial on federal racketeering charges.
They’re suspected in the brazen killing of rapper Carlton Weekly — whose stage name was FBG Duck — outside a luxury business strip in the Gold Coast neighborhood on Aug. 4, 2020.
Sources say Faceworld was created in honor of 15-year-old Cornell “King Face” Henderson, a Chicago Vocational Career Academy freshman who was shot to death in Marquette Park in 2010.
Although he’s not a defendant in the recent Faceworld indictment, Wordlow, one of the reputed members of the gang, is charged in federal court with participating in a violent crime spree on April 30, 2021.
He originally was charged in Cook County criminal court, but that case was dropped.
According to the FBI, Wordlow carjacked a Jeep Grand Cherokee outside a restaurant in the 8300 block of South Pulaski Avenue while a man and his wife walked toward their car. Wordlow took the man’s keys and wallet and demanded the identification number for his credit card, pointing a gun and saying, “You better be sure. I’ll blow your f—--- head off,” the FBI said.
The Jeep was later used in a drive-by shooting that seriously wounded a person in the 300 block of West 75th Street and in a robbery of a woman in the 400 block of East 103rd Street, according to the FBI, which suspects that Wordlow also was involved in a carjacking of a Mercedes SUV.
Two days after the Jeep was carjacked, police recovered it on the South Side. Inside, they found an ATM receipt for the credit card stolen in the carjacking. Wordlow’s fingerprints were on the receipt, according to the FBI.
