Brooklyn Thief Named 'Bam Bam' Hawked Knicks Player's Phone for $40, Feds Say

Image via Michael Tipton/Flickr

BROOKLYN, NY — A dude from Brooklyn who goes by "Bam Bam" has confessed to federal investigators that he played a role in the dramatic 4:30 a.m. robbery and shooting of New York Knicks forward Cleanthony Early, 24, as he waited in an Uber outside a Queens strip club on Dec. 30, according to a complaint filed Saturday in federal court.

Devon "Bam Bam" Dowling allegedly admitted to the feds that he and his crew met up in Brooklyn on the evening prior, then drove three vehicles to the CityScapes Gentleman’s Club in Maspeth, Queens. (Located just across Newtown Creek from Greenpoint.)

Dowling's crew waited outside the strip club for a "period of time," the complaint says, before various members hopped out of their vehicles and robbed Early at gunpoint.

"After the robbery, the defendant traveled with his coconspirators to Brooklyn, New York and accepted proceeds of the robbery, specifically, two cellular telephones," the complaint says.

Dowling allegedly hawked the stolen phones for $40 each.

Early was shot in the knee during the Dec. 30 holdup — narrowly avoiding serious injury that could have benched him long-term. He reportedly returned to the Knicks' active roster in late March.

A Brooklyn resident with the same name (and nickname) as Dowling lists himself on Facebook as a 2015 graduate of Paul Robeson high school, or Public School 199, in Weeksville near Bed-Stuy. Photos posted to his account show him and his friends posing in front of Bed-Stuy's public Eleanor Roosevelt Houses. In other photos, the young man poses with bags of weed and stacks of cash, and wears basketball caps with logos for the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat.

A photo posted by Cle'anthony Early (@cleanthonyearly11_) on Dec 31, 2015 at 9:21am PST