Four teen brothers jailed for gang activity

<p>Four teenage brothers are in jail on charges that they are part of a violent gang called the "Strap Squad."</p><p>The boys _ ages 13 to 17 _ were charged on March 8 with multiple counts of robbery, burglary, simple battery and participation in gang activity. The arrest landed the boys' mother and great-grandmother in jail, too, after police say a 14-year-old girl was held against her will at the family's apartment for three days and the women did nothing about it.</p><p>The 16-year-old boy was charged with statutory rape and his 13-year-old brother was charged with false imprisonment in that incident.</p><p>The teens' mother, Prima Charleston, and Mary Murray Herndon, 74, the great-grandmother, were charged with interference with custody. They have been released from jail on bond.</p><p>Charleston, 33, says most of the charges against her sons are bogus. She said the boys are in a harmless rap group, not a gang.</p><p>"These kids have been harassed by cops who don't understand how they dress," she said.</p><p>Snellville Police Chief Roy Whitehead said the teens have been breaking into homes in their neighborhood and assaulting and stealing from students walking home from South Gwinnett High School.</p><p>"This is the largest case of gang activity we have ever seen in Snellville," Whitehead said.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cda48c)</p>

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