A decade of deaths linked to MS-13

Age: 24
Killed: May 26, 2009

Acheampong, of Central Islip, was targeted because he was black and mistakenly assumed to be a rival Bloods gang member. He was shot twice in the back as he ran from his attackers in the vicinity of East Maple Street in Central Islip.

Age: 28
Killed: July 20, 2009

After leaving work, Villalobos went to a Bay Shore deli not far from his apartment. Three young men he met there later told detectives he claimed to be a member of the MS-13, which the trio knew was untrue. After luring him into a car, they drove to a dark street littered with gang tags and hacked him to death, police said.

Age: 16
Killed: Aug. 7, 2009

Rosales, of Westbury, was walking home with a friend after leaving a movie theater when two men chased him, according to prosecutors. One yelled gang slogans while the other used a belt to beat Rosales, who authorities said was not a gang member. The first man then fatally stabbed him 11 times, prosecutors said.

Age: 57
Killed: Sept. 12, 2009

Peralta was shot during a robbery at Los Hermanos Grocery in Brentwood where he was a store employee. Authorities said the motive in the robbery was to ensure the flow of money from the local gang to the Central American bosses.

Age: 27
Killed: Oct. 4, 2009

Castro, of Roosevelt, was stabbed and slashed to death with machetes and knives in Huntington Station because he was thought to be a member of the rival 18th Street Gang. His body was found in a road in the Froehlich Farm preserve about two miles from the Cold Spring Harbor Long Island Rail Road station.

Age: in his 30s
Killed: Oct. 22, 2009

He was found stabbed to death in front of a Garden City house. Police said witnesses reported seeing a dispute between Vasquez and two or three people who got out of car and confronted him.

Age: 15
Killed: Nov. 20, 2009

A Brentwood Freshman Center student who went by the nickname Brisko, Hamilton was shot outside of a house party in Brentwood, mistakenly thought to be a member of a rival gang.

Age: 16
Killed: Dec. 12, 2009

A member of the rival 18th Street gang from Hempstead, according to authorities, he was confronted by two men at Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Hempstead and asked to step outside. He was stabbed 15 times and pronounced dead at Nassau University Medical Center.

Age: 19
Killed: Feb. 5, 2010

Shot to death in the head and chest by two MS-13 gang members, including her former boyfriend, in a wooded section of Central Islip. A third gang member turned the gun on her crying toddler, killing him. Prosecutors said the killing was retribution for disrespecting the gang.

Age: 2
Killed: Feb. 5, 2010

Saw his mother, Vanessa Argueta, shot, then he was shot in the head and killed in Central Islip. She brought him with her on what she thought was a dinner date because she didn’t have a baby-sitter.

Age: 21
Killed: Feb. 17, 2010

Killed by MS-13 gang members who believed he was a member of a rival street gang (Latin Kings). Shot in face in Brentwood along with Aaron Galan, who survived.

Age: 23
Killed: March 6, 2010

A security guard at El Rancho Bar and Grill in Hempstead, Moreno was shot in the head and killed after group of gang members returned to the bar following a February dispute over a $40 bar bill in which at least one gang member was sprayed with mace.

Age: 25
Killed: March 17, 2010

Killed after being lured to Far Rockaway. An MS-13 member, he was believed to be not following orders. Shot first and then hacked to death.

Age: 19
Killed: Aug. 31, 2010

A member of MS-13, he was believed to have cooperated with law enforcement. He was lured into a Brentwood park where he was later found shot to death.

Age: 19
Killed: Sept. 9, 2010

A member of MS-13 from Central Islip, he was found shot in the head multiple times with a .357 caliber revolver in Brentwood because MS-13 members believed he had cooperated with local law enforcement authorities in the past, according to a federal indictment.

Age: 18
Killed: April 22, 2011

Police said he was approached as he walked up Grand Boulevard in Brentwood, about a mile from his home, on a Friday night. An MS-13 leader testified in court that he and other members found Rosario and decided to kill him as part of an initiation of a new member.

Age: 21
Killed: Dec. 18, 2011

Believed to be an MS-13 member in Brentwood, he was shot execution-style alongside his brother, Ricardo, on Dec. 18, 2011.

Age: 19
Killed: Dec. 18, 2011

Believed to be an MS-13 member in Brentwood, he was shot execution-style alongside his brother on Dec. 18, 2011.

Age: 21
Killed: May 26, 2013

One of two murders in Central Islip over 2013 Memorial Day weekend. He was shot multiple times because he was assumed to be a member of the Bloods street gang since he was wearing an article of red clothing. Prosecutors called it “an incorrect assumption.”

Age: 21
Killed: May 28, 2013

One of two murders in Central Islip over the 2013 Memorial Day weekend. MS-13 members on the hunt assumed he was a member of the Bloods, opened fire and killed him. Prosecutors called it “an incorrect assumption.”

Age: 19
Killed: Feb. 25, 2014

Four MS-13 gang members shot the Queens resident and fellow gang member, whom they suspected of cooperating with law enforcement about gang activities. They lured him to Long Island under the pretense they needed his help on gang business and then shot him in the back of the head, dumping his body on Miller Place Beach, where a beachcomber discovered it about two weeks later.

Age: 27
Killed: July 14, 2014

Shot while sitting in a car outside of his home on Twin Lawns Avenue in Brentwood, targeted because the gang members believed he had been “an assassin” who had killed MS-13 members in El Salvador.

Age: 31
Killed: Aug. 30, 2014

A pregnant Bay Shore woman, Canjura and her unborn child were pronounced dead at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore shortly after she was shot in a car in front of her home. Canjura was an acquaintance of Byron Lopez, an MS-13 member who pleaded guilty in the death of Sidney Valverde.

Age: 16
Killed: June 30, 2015

MS-13 members who believed Cardona-Hernandez belonged to a rival gang invited him to hang out with them, prosecutors said. He was approached from behind at Nicoll Avenue in Central Islip and shot at least 10 times with two 9 mm handguns.

Age: Not available
Killed: Nov. 19, 2015

MS-13 members suspected he was a member of a rival Mexican gang, Raza Loca. Lured to a secluded area in Babylon, he was attacked with knives and a baseball bat. His body was not discovered until April 2018.

Age: 24
Killed: Nov. 28, 2015

One of two men found shot on Gibson Street, Brentwood on a Saturday night. The second victim survived.

Age: 20
Disappeared: May 2016

Pineda was a student at Freeport High School whose family said that he had dreams of becoming a police officer and that he had left his Central American homeland because of MS-13 violence there. His body was found on Oct. 27, 2017, in thick woods near the Merrick-Freeport border.

Age: 18
Killed: June 2016

A member of MS-13, he was suspected of violating gang rules “in several ways, including talking to law enforcement.” His skeletal remains were unearthed on Oct. 17, 2016, in a wooded area on the grounds of the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center.

Age: 18
Killed: Aug. 20, 2016

Authorities said the killing was ordered after the victim was reportedly seen on social media flashing gang signs associated with the rival 18th Street gang. The teen’s body was found at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Greenlawn “with significant lacerations on his body,” and his hands nearly severed.

Age: 18
Missing: Aug. 24, 2016

A Uniondale teen who authorities say was associated with MS-13, is believed to have been lured into the Massapequa Preserve and attacked with machetes by gang members. His body was recovered on May 24, 2019.

Age: 15
Killed: Sept. 13, 2016

Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, both juniors at the Brentwood High School’s Ross Center, were found on Sept. 13 and 14. Their bodies were left about a mile and a half from each other, near an elementary school and wooded cul-de-sacs typical of the residential area. Suffolk police described the girls’ fatal injuries as resulting from a “brutal attack” of blunt-force trauma.

Age: 16
Killed: Sept. 13, 2016

Mickens and Cuevas, both juniors at the Brentwood High School’s Ross Center, were found on Sept. 13 and 14. Their bodies were left about a mile and a half from each other, near an elementary school and wooded cul-de-sacs. Suffolk police described the girls’ fatal injuries as resulting from a “brutal attack” of blunt-force trauma.

Age: 19
Killed: Sept. 4, 2016

Police say he was targeted by MS-13 after posting pictures on social media of himself and new friends whom the gang considered rivals. He was attacked by members of the gang using a machete and then buried in the woods at the Roosevelt Preserve in Roosevelt. Remains described as “bone fragments” were found on May 30, 2018, after an investigation in connection with the killing of Angel Soler. Leonor, a Freeport High School student, had been friends with schoolmates Soler and Kerin Pineda, according to their families. Soler and Pineda are also believed by police to be victims of MS-13.

Age: 19
Killed: April 29, 2016

A student at Brentwood High School’s Ross Center, he was killed because he was suspected of being a member of the rival 18th Street Gang. His remains were found on Sept. 16, 2016, in a wooded area in Brentwood. Cause of death reported as assault.

Age: 15
Missing: Feb. 20, 2016

After seven months his remains were found Sept. 21, 2016, in a wooded area west of Emjay Boulevard in Brentwood, north of the Long Island Rail Road tracks. Cause of death reported as assault.

Age: 16
Killed: Oct. 10, 2016

The Central Islip resident was suspected by MS-13 of being a rival 18th Street gang member, authorities said. He was lured to Cow Meadow Park in Freeport, attacked with machetes and buried in a shallow grave. The FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, acting on a tip related to MS-13, found human remains while searching Cow Meadow Park and Preserve on Oct. 23, 2017.

Age: 34
Killed: Oct. 13, 2016

He was attacked with a baseball bat and machetes as he walked along American Boulevard south of Second Avenue, in Brentwood, late in the evening and left to die. His attackers suspected him of being a rival gang member, authorities said.

Age: 16
Killed: December 2016

Shot in the head on Dec. 13 while standing on Fenimore Avenue in Uniondale. He died three days later. He was not the intended target in an attack on a perceived gang enemy who was standing nearby.

Age: 19
Killed: Jan. 18, 2017

A Valley Stream teen, police said he was killed by alleged MS-13 gang members because he was suspected of being a rival gang member, though police said he was not. He was stabbed and shot multiple times. His body was found on March 23, 2017, at the Peter J. Schmitt Massapequa Preserve in Massapequa Park.

Age: 29
Killed: Jan. 30, 2017

Shot several times and killed in a Central Islip deli, he was believed to be a member of the rival 18th Street gang. A female deli worker was also shot but survived.

Age: 37
Killed: March 20, 2017

From Hempstead, he was shot in the back and head as he walked along Front Street in the early evening.

Age: 18
Killed: April 11, 2017

From Bellport, one of four young men whose bodies were found in a small park in Central Islip on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. An MS-13 member who pleaded guilty to the killing said the victims were lured by two women who said they were going to “smoke weed.” When the victims got to the park, they were surrounded by MS-13 members who attacked them with machetes, knives and clubs.

Age: 16
Killed: April 11, 2017

From East Patchogue, one of four young men whose bodies were found in a small park in Central Islip on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. An MS-13 member who pleaded guilty to the killing said the victims were lured by two women who said they were going to “smoke weed.” When the victims got to the park, they were surrounded by MS-13 members who attacked them with machetes, knives and clubs.

Age: 18
Killed: April 11, 2017

From Pompano Beach, Fla., one of four young men whose bodies were found in a Central Islip park on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. An MS-13 member who pleaded guilty to the killing said the victims were lured by two women who said they were going to “smoke weed.” When the victims got to the park, they were surrounded by MS-13 members who attacked them with machetes, knives and clubs.

Age: 20
Killed: April 11, 2017

From Brentwood, one of four young men whose bodies were found in a small park in Central Islip on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. An MS-13 member who pleaded guilty to the killing said the victims were lured by two women who said they were going to “smoke weed.” When the victims got to the park, they were surrounded by MS-13 members who attacked them with machetes, knives and clubs.

Age: 39
Killed: May 30, 2017

The Bayside man was shot in the chest and killed outside a bodega allegedly by two MS-13 gang members who were later arrested in a raid in Hempstead. The killing was captured on surveillance video.

Age: 16
Killed: May 2017

Described by police as a member of MS-13, Vasquez’s badly-decomposed body was found at Alley Pond Park in Oakland Gardens on May 21, 2017 with about 30 stab wounds. Investigators said at the time that he could have been killed somewhere else and then dumped in the park.

Age: 18
Killed: Sept. 15, 2017

Standing in a crowd in Uniondale when two men rode up on bicycles. He was shot nine times as he hung out with friends on a Uniondale street corner just before midnight.

Age: 16
Killed: July 2017

From Roosevelt. A student at Freeport High School, his remains were found Oct. 19, 2017, on the Baldwin-Roosevelt border, believed killed by members of the MS-13 gang. He had been friendly with Freeport High School classmates Kerin Pineda, 20, who disappeared in May 2016, and with Josué David Amaya Leonor, who disappeared in September 2016.

Age: 22
Killed: Aug. 13, 2017

From Uniondale. Killed in an MS-13 machete attack in East Meadow, allegedly because he was an informant who had cooperated with authorities. Rivas-Majano’s remains were found Aug. 29, 2018, in a shallow grave in the woods. He was attacked by at least five MS-13 gang members, according to authorities.

Age: 17
Killed: July 2, 2018

Shot five times outside his East Patchogue home. Authorities said the Bellport High School student was an innocent victim killed as “a result of folks he was hanging out with and his desire to live a law-abiding life.”

Age: 17
Killed: Dec. 18, 2018

The Lawrence teen, believed by investigators to be a Latin Kings gang member, was shot and then cut with a machete behind the Five Towns Community Center, where they believed he had been lured with the promise of sex.