MS-13 Gang Member Manuel Amaya-Alvarez Sentenced To 20 Years For Machete Attack
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - An MS-13 gang member was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for his role in a brutal machete attack at an Irving park in 2017.
Manuel Amaya-Alvarez, 22, pleaded guilty in May to four counts of violent crime in aid of racketeering (VICAR).
According to court documents, Amaya-Alvarez, an El Salvadorian national in the United States illegally, admitted he belonged to MS-13, a notorious and violent transnational street gang.
He admitted that on September 25, 2017, he and fellow MS-13 gang members attempted to "take out," or kill, four individuals at Running Bear Park.
That night, the gang lured a man they perceived to be a rival gang member to the park under the guise that they wanted to buy his tattoo machine.
The man came with two other men and a female acquaintance. When they arrived, gang members lured them to wooded area in the back of the park, where more gang members, armed with a shotgun, machetes and clubs, were waiting for them.
After Amaya-Alvarez and another gang member, both seated on a park bench, greeted the victims, the other gang members appeared and surrounded the victims, forcing them to kneel on the ground before robbing them and attacking them with machetes and clubs, according to court documents. The three men took off, but the woman was unable to escape and was savagely maimed and left for dead.
Two of the men also suffered serious physical injuries, including blunt trauma from blows and severe cuts from a machete.