shot caller

plural shot callers · alternative shot-caller · alternative shotcaller

1. slangSomeone in charge, especially the leader of a street gang.

   'Cause I'm the creepy crawler that be crawling your walls / And I'm the shot caller when it comes to shot calls

   2004, “Oh Word?”, in To the 5 Boroughs, performed by Beastie Boys

   1 more example

   Antonio Ramirez,^([sic]) is a shot caller (a leader) of the A Street gang, a powerful criminal organization in the southern part of the state.

   2009, Samuel H. Pillsbury, How Criminal Law Works: A Conceptual and Practical Guide, page 346

2. USslangA prison inmate who holds informal authority over other inmates and who masterminds criminal activity.

   […] the CDC's campaign to isolate other "shot callers" in its new generation of super maximum security prisons.

   2000, Christian Parenti, Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis, page 198

   2 more examples

   A hotbed for fights and race riots has long been California's Pitchess Detention Center, a Los Angeles County prison. These battles are masterminded by tattooed gang leaders called shot callers.

   2014, Carl Sifakis, The Encyclopedia of American Prisons, page 236

   People already knew me from the streets, so when the previous shot caller was transferred to a different state prison, a leadership vacuum was created. I was asked to fill it. One of the shot callers' responsibilities was to control the shanks within the prison population—the crude homemade knives used for stabbing another prisoner.

   2019, Casey Diaz, Mike Yorkey, The Shot Caller […] , Emanate Books, →ISBN, page 76