East Patchogue Family Blames MS-13 For Son's Death
EAST PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – The family of a teenager killed in front of his Long Island home says the MS-13 gang may be responsible for his death.
Emilio Sanchez Maldonado was found shot behind a bush in his front yard in East Patchogue by his father around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.
"He put his hand on his chest and tried to wake him up and he said 'Antonio, please wake up, we have to go to work,'" their landlord, Anairis Benavides told CBS2's Cindy Hsu. "He saw his hand full of blood and he flashed him with his cellphone and saw that he was dead."
The 17-year-old was supposed to start a summer job that day at the bakery where his father works. The high school student came from El Salvador four years ago to join his dad on Long Island.
His family believes MS-13 may have killed him because he wouldn't join the gang.
"He said he thinks in school they were maybe obligating him to be in some type of gang, he doesn't know if it was MS-13 or MS-18," said Benavides. "All he knows is he was a really good kid and maybe them thinking he came from a good family, he didn't want to join, so maybe that's why."
"He told me he had some kind of trouble with a couple kids in school, and those kids, he told me, look like the gang kids," his uncle, Nahun Cruz, said.
They said Maldonado had no interest and wanted to take the summer job with his dad to help the rest of their family still in El Salvador.
"He wanted to help his mom and his sister in El Salvador," said Cruz.
Benavides said she's scared for her own three children now.
"Knowing that they're still out there, it just gives me a feeling that I don't even want to come home sometimes," she said.
Maldonado's funeral will be held Saturday in Central Islip, then his body will be flown home to El Salvador.