A GoodFellas street gang member who drove the car in a southwest Atlanta gas station ambush is headed to federal prison for a decade after a 2021 drive-by left an innocent bystander shot in the foot. Prosecutors say 27-year-old Tahj Rankine of Tucker, known as "Biggz," admitted earlier this year to firing a gun during a crime of violence tied to the gang.
According to the Department of Justice, Rankine pleaded guilty in January and was sentenced on April 29 to 10 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Officials say the charge is linked to an attempted murder carried out to benefit the GoodFellas' racketeering enterprise, which put the case squarely on the radar of the Justice Department's Violent Crime and Racketeering Section.
Prosecutors say the ambush was brazen
Federal authorities say Rankine acted as the driver during the February 2, 2021, attack, taking fellow GoodFellas members to a Quickmart in southwest Atlanta and then circling back while shooters in two cars unleashed a barrage of gunfire toward the storefront. Local coverage and the government's account put the number of shots somewhere between 30 and 40. The gunfire struck an innocent bystander in the foot and also hit a vehicle that had children inside, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.
Officials condemn the violence
Federal prosecutors and investigators cast the sentence as part of a broader push against violent street gangs operating in and around Atlanta. "Tahj Rankine drove a vehicle while fellow gang members shot out of it, maiming an innocent bystander," U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement, and Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva added that "gang shootings in public places are all too common." The FBI's Atlanta field office said drive-by attacks put entire neighborhoods at risk and pledged to keep working with federal and local partners to clamp down on similar violence, according to the Department of Justice.
How this fits into a larger crackdown
Prosecutors say the GoodFellas gang bankrolls itself through drug trafficking, robbery, carjacking and firearms trafficking, and federal agents have been steadily picking off alleged members in a string of recent cases. broad indictment against alleged GoodFellas members coverage detailed a sweeping racketeering case that national outlets later highlighted as part of a coordinated federal effort to rein in gang activity. The sentencing of Rankine is the latest in a run of prosecutions tied to that same racketeering probe, according to reporting by CBS News.
Charges, victims and what's next
Rankine pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, a federal count that prosecutors leaned on to support the attempted-murder allegation at sentencing. Authorities say the FBI led the investigation with help from both local and federal partners, while prosecutors from the Northern District of Georgia and the Justice Department handled the case in court, according to local reports. Officials have not recently updated the public on the injured bystander’s condition, WSB Radio.
