The ‘Gilbert Goons:’ insight on the teen gang terrorizing the Gilbert-area

Robert Anglen and Elena Santa Cruz, reporters at “The Arizona Republic,” have reported on a teen gang in the East Valley area known as the Gilbert Goons who are allegedly tied to the murder of Preston Lord as well as other crimes. Police say Lord was beaten at a party; he died later at the hospital.

In mid-December, “The Arizona Republic” published an investigation that found the Gilbert Goons, a gang of mostly affluent teenagers, had engaged in a string of blitz-style attacks on other teens in the southeast Valley for more than a year, according to interviews, court and police records, and social media posts. The Gilbert Police Department has reopened four criminal investigations involving teens, including attacks by members of the Gilbert Goons.

“There was a lot of misinformation, a lot of social media clamor and wild allegations about this group of teens. What I think we did more than anything was that we framed what the issue was and quickly, we were able to determine not only were these attacks going on, where teenagers were attacking people randomly at malls, parks and fast food restaurants, but they were also possibly involved with the murder of Preston Lord,” Anglen said.

Cruz said they both started looking into Lord’s death and stumbled upon an array of allegations on social media, which is when they learned about the Gilbert Goons.

“We’ve heard from community members that that is what they call them, and I believe we’ve found social media posts with the hashtag of “Go Gilbert Goons,” “Goons” or “Gilbert Goonies,” with these various forms of names,” Cruz said.

Anglen confirmed the group consists of mostly white and upper-middle class teens who are from different high schools and different communities.

“One of the most chilling things that we discovered was just days after Preston Lord was murdered, one of the people we identified in attack videos posted something on social media that was akin to a confession,” Anglen said.

Cruz said after going through a police report, she found many of the attacks were unprovoked, and one teen said that he did it for fun. Since “The Arizona Republic’s” findings, the Gilbert Police Department has looked into past related attacks from the last two years.