The Almighty Saints is a street gang founded in the early 1960s by Polish youth at Davis Square Park in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago, but later was largely made up of Hispanics due to the change in the community's ethnic makeup.
In a 1998 feature article, the Chicago Tribune wrote: "In a city known for its fearsome supergangs—criminal enterprises like the Latin Kings and the Gangster Disciples—the Saints stand out as an example of the street corner gang that still hangs on in many neighborhoods.
[2] In 1998, a 12-year-old boy shot two teen Gangster Disciple members in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, in the hope of joining the Almighty Saints street gang.
In December 2004, there was a police raid in the Saints neighborhood dubbed "Operation Broken Halo"; 25 members were arrested and detained in prison on drug dealing and weapons charges.
Crump and other agents were placing court-approved tracking devices on vehicles belonging to suspected gang members during a joint mission between the Chicago Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Kevin Crump and other members of the strike force were acting on information that the Almighty Saints gang in the Back of the Yards might have just received a number of guns.
Kevin Crump was the 4th law enforcement officer shot in the city's Back of the Yards neighborhood during that past year, the Tribune reported.
The Back of the Yards neighborhood had become a hotbed for gang-related shootings during the past two years leading to the deaths of 50 people out of more than 140 who were shot by gang members wielding rifles across the South and Southwest sides.
On June 17, 2019 a federal jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Ernesto "Ernie" Godinez guilty on one count each of assaulting an agent with a deadly weapon and of discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime.
In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Eichenseer said that cameras — as well as Godinez’s text messages with his girlfriend — showed that he had "posted up" in the neighborhood looking for rivals when several suspicious-looking men in hooded sweatshirts began circling his block in a brown Chevrolet Impala.
At the time, the task force officers — including Crump — were dressed in sweatshirts with their hoods up and were driving unmarked vehicles according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kavitha Babu.
Feeling that "something was about to go down," Godinez sprinted through an alley to his home and retrieved a gun, then made his way back up the gangway knowing that it offered perfect cover, Eichenseer said.
As the undercover agents walked down the street half a block away, Godinez fired off five rounds in their direction then ran back to his house and texted his girlfriend to come pick him up.
Defense attorney Lawrence Hyman used his closing argument to point out a person in a white shirt who also appeared on surveillance video.
Crump, who testified last week, needed several reconstructive surgeries including steel mesh and titanium implants to repair his injuries.