Local and hybrid crews · street
Public sources describe Upstate street gangs as largely neighborhood-based groups, such as the Highland and Park Hills gangs in Spartanburg and the Southside, Eastside, Osborne and Westside gangs in Greenwood, operating alongside sets of national gangs. Greenville County Sheriff's Office data reported 72 gang-related offenses from January through September 2026, down 11 from the same period in 2025. [1][2][3][4]
A Spartanburg officer told the Herald-Journal on March 10, 2011, that many gangs in the county take their origins from local neighborhoods, naming the Westside, Draper Line, Converse Street, Southside, Northside and Highland gangs. The same article reported that a 2009 killing set off a series of clashes between members of the Park Hills, Southside and Highland neighborhood gangs. In February 2008, Spartanburg investigators examined whether a shooting at a south-side club was related to a dispute involving the Park Hills Gang. [2][5]
A Greenwood Police Department detective told the Index-Journal on November 14, 2015, that the main gangs in Greenwood are neighborhood-affiliated: Southside (Phoenix Street area), Eastside (near Packer Avenue), Osborne (Cokesbury Street near Reynolds Avenue) and Westside (Mineral Avenue). He said the gangs are not particularly territorial but that shootings and other crimes still pit them against each other. [3]
On June 21, 2023, Greenwood Police Chief T.J. Chaudoin said the city had roughly 150 identified gang members and described many local groups as homegrown gangs. He said recruits are brought in at 13 or 14 years old, even as young as 12, and that his department had seen activity coming from Abbeville and McCormick. [6]
On April 26, 2018, the Index-Journal reported that students fighting at Emerald High School were members of the Southside/Bowllane gang, which had been fighting with people from Abbeville. In Union County, the sheriff described three or four splinter groups that had split off from the main gangs and operated in different communities, according to a Union Daily Times report from about 2009. [7][8]
Anderson County has fielded a Sheriff Gang Task Force; on October 4, 2011, that task force arrested three teenagers in an arson and shooting case in Centerville. During the 2016 sheriff's race, the incumbent said "The gangs in Anderson County are not like the gangs in California or New York." [9][10]
In Greenville County, a group of teens who called themselves the Cross Tracks street gang carried out violent home invasion robberies in 2014. On December 4, 2020, deputies said a gang-related conflict led to a deadly shooting at Lakeside Park in Piedmont. [11][12]
An IACP Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation site profile, citing the Spartanburg Police Department, states that the Highland neighborhood has its own gang, the Highland Gang (HLG), which has no rank or structure and is at odds with the Park Hills Gang less than two miles away. The profile states that Highland also contains multiple sets or cliques of the Bloods and the Crips. [1]
On October 1, 2026, former Georgia gang prosecutor Cedric James told WYFF that gang activity in the Greenville area is centered in neighborhoods rather than a formal structure, with a different group in an apartment complex two blocks away. Chief Chaudoin of Greenwood described homegrown gangs as kids from Greenwood who begin identifying themselves by a name and colors. [4][6]
Public sources give these local abbreviations: OB for the Osborne gang in Greenwood and HLG for the Highland Gang in Spartanburg. A Greenwood detective said in 2015 that most local graffiti, including a "SUR 13" tag on a house, comes from younger people who are not necessarily associated with national gangs. [3][1]
On November 30, 2018, 8th Circuit Solicitor David M. Stumbo reported that Zantravious Hall, 25, described as an Eastside Gang member, was found guilty of murder and attempted murder in a Greenwood apartment complex shooting and sentenced to life without parole. On April 6, 2023, the Laurens County Advertiser reported that Antonio Williams, 29, a documented Greenwood gang member, received 30 years for armed robbery and attempted murder in a May 2021 Laurens County shooting and had tried to bribe and threaten witnesses. [13][14]
On August 25, 2016, Lorenzo Azia Jackson, 25, pleaded guilty to armed robbery and attempted murder in a September 3, 2014, home invasion that he planned with the Cross Tracks group; he received 18 years and was the last of 10 defendants. On October 18, 2018, the solicitor's office said a shooting at a Spartanburg Cook Out restaurant was a shootout between gangs. Greenville cases also involve sets of national gangs alongside neighborhood groups. On September 25, 2026, the 13th Circuit Solicitor's Office reported that Kimron Keantea Lilly, 26, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and conspiracy for a July 16, 2021, shooting at a Bloods cookout in Conestee Park, carried out with members of the Rolling 20s, a Crips set; he was sentenced to 27 years. [11][15][16]
Greenville County Sheriff's Office statistics obtained by WYFF show 72 gang-related offenses from January through September 2026, 11 fewer than the same period in 2025. Drug, weapons law and aggravated assault offenses were the most common. Public records confirmed that a March 2026 assault of a 13-year-old at Unity Park and a June 2026 shooting at Haywood Mall were gang-related cases. [4]
On September 21, 2026, shots fired into a home on 4th Street in Woodside wounded a woman instead of the intended gang member. Deputies charged three teens, ages 15, 16 and 17, believed to belong to a rival street gang; 17-year-old Davie Esteban De La Cruz Pol was charged as an adult. The gangs were not named. [17][4]
In Spartanburg County, A.B. Martinez, 22, was charged with murder after a shooting on Thorn Ridge Drive in Boiling Springs that deputies described on September 23, 2024, as gang-related. On October 30, 2025, Clemson police reported the arrest of Damion Austin Davis, 26, and Gage Elijah Jack Stewart, 20, both of Salem, as suspected gang members in a burglary in which guns were stolen. The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office Gang Unit investigates drive-by shootings and organized gang operations countywide. [18][19][20]
Public sources describe Upstate street gangs as largely neighborhood-based groups, such as the Highland and Park Hills gangs in Spartanburg and the Southside, Eastside, Osborne and Westside gangs in Greenwood, operating alongside sets of national gangs. Greenville County Sheriff's Office data reported 72 gang-related offenses from January through September 2026, down 11 from the same period in 2025.
