After a recent alleged gang attack in Southold Tuesday, Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa has offered to come back to the area and help combat what he considers a growing menace.
Sliwa first collaborated with former Greenport Village Mayor David Kapell in 2005, when he came to Greenport and organized a citizen-based group that helped patrol village streets.
The Guardian Angels is a volunteer-based organization made up of citizen volunteers who help protect communities around the world.
This week, Sliwa reflected on his experience in Greenport, and said at the time, he tried to enlighten the community and explain that gangs were a real issue. “When I was warning the locals about how these gang-bangers were setting their roots in to the ground, many of the leaders, both in the community, business, and police divisions tried to shoot me, the messenger, because they didn’t like the sound of my message about gangs moving in. In fact, I will never forget that some business owners in Greenport likened calling in the Guardian Angels to yelling, ‘Shark!’ at the beach. People felt that if we were helping to eradicate the growing gang menace, that property values would plunge and that people would not come and frequent their bucolic shops,” he said.
After a patrol one night, Sliwa said Kapell dropped him off at the Long Island Rail Road station. “As I was waiting for the train, a husband and wife came up to me and said that our Guardian Angel services would be better used back in New York City. The husband said, ‘We don’t have a gang problem anywhere in Greenport or Southhold’. I pointed out two other guys waiting for the train who had MS-13 tattoos on their necks. I told them these guys were not customizing their neck, they were bragging boldly and openly of their gang affiliation.”
This week, after a violent machete attack and shootings by alleged gang members in Southold, some authorities say that they believe the increase in gang presence on the North Fork could be on the rise.
“I think the amount of potential gang members in our area has definitely increased,” Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley said Wednesday. “Prior to this past week’s assaults, their activity has not been this blatant. This case, however, has us very concerned of the potential violent acts associated with these gangs.”
Greenport Village Mayor David Nyce, however, said he believed the incident was not indicative of a greater trend. “I have conferred with Chief Flatley and I feel that, while there may be some gang members and activity associated with them, these are still isolated incidents. Every community on Long Island must deal with these situations and we will continue to monitor them and rely on our police department to keep us apprised and safe,” he said.
Meanwhile, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said he had “full faith and confidence in the Southold Town Police Department and the department’s leadership to address issues regarding public safety and gang activity.”
Robert DeSena, founder of Council for Unity, an organization aimed at eradicating gang activity in Riverhead and other areas including New York City, said on Wednesday that any community, in any part of the country, whether upscale or poverty-ridden, can be seen as fertile for gang members to flourish.
“The ultimate measurement of gang activity in anywhere stems from the conditions that promote and support gang activity,” he said. “When there is no opportunity for upward mobility, no positive role models, rampant materialism that defines your worth, indifference on the part of society, isolation and so on, gangs are going to swell. They thrive when youth are disenfranchised and hopeless.”
There has been an increase in MS-13 participants in the Suffolk County Correctional Facility’s Council for Unity group, DeSena said. “That could be symptomatic of what is occurring in key areas like Brentwood, Central Islip, Wyandanch and Amityville,” he said.
But gang activity on the North Fork is not new — and the presence of the violent street gang, the La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, has been noted in crimes dating back years.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations has a Long Island Gang Task Force; Suffolk County Police are members of the group. According to the FBI, MS-13 is “a violent international street gang comprised primarily of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. With numerous branches, or ‘cliques,’ the MS-13 is the largest street gang on Long Island. Since 2002, more than 200 MS-13 members, including more that two dozen clique leaders, have been convicted on federal felony charges in the Eastern District of New York. More than 50 of those MS-13 members have been convicted on federal racketeering charges. Seventeen of those defendants have received sentences of 10 years or more, and more than a dozen MS-13 defendants have been sentenced or are awaiting sentencing on murder convictions. These prosecutions are the product of investigations led by the FBI Long Island Gang Task Force, composed of agents and officers of the FBI, Nassau County Police Department, Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, Suffolk County Probation, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, and the Rockville Centre Police Department.”
In Greenport in 2007, two Shelter Island men were savagely beaten by seven gang members brandishing baseball bats. The motive, police said, was gold chains the victims wore on their necks.
At that time, Sliwa collaborated with Kapell to bring a chapter to the village after residents expressed concerns about crime and drug activity.
Back in 2007, Sliwa said the presence of MS-13 gang members were “entrenched,” and spreading across Long Island, in communities including Riverhead, Baldwin, Brentwood, Valley Stream, Freeport, and Copaigue.
During the attack in Greenport, several of the assailants allegedly shouted they were part of the MS-13 street gang and told the victims they were going to die.
Less than a month later, a Sag Harbor man, Marvin Velasquez-Moreno, was arrested after beating another man unconscious on the Greenport railroad dock.
The MS-13 gang, considered by the FBI to be the most dangerous gang in the United States, has been forging a path of destruction in the United States, moving into areas not only in southern states such as New Mexico, but also, in Suffolk County.
MS-13 gang members often wear blue and white and have tattoos in visible areas such as foreheads, knuckles and cheeks.
Sliwa said this week, “Times have changed but the problems continue to spread their tentacles into the fabric of life in the community. From the streets to the schools to the places where gang-bangers frequent and flex their affiliation. Our closest location now, is in Huntington, the village, which has had its fair share of similar gang problems. It is ironic that when we had our stand up, this past Sunday for the Columbus Day Festival in Huntington, a lot of people asked if we could do something about the growing problems in Riverhead and beyond.”
Sliwa said he’d be willing to come back and meet with many of the same business, community, and police leaders who “questioned our need back in 2007. We are experts in the field of gang prevention and gang intervention. Many of our members speak Spanish and we are able to provide an alternative. So rather than say, ‘I told you so,’ I would be more than happy to return with a contingent of Guardian Angels to help locals deal with this growing gang menace.”
On Friday, four defendants charged in Tuesday’s attack appeared before Judge Randolph Bruer in Southold Town Justice Court. All were held on $250,000 cash bail.
The fourth suspect, an MS-13 gang member, 16, was nabbed Thursday in relation to an alleged gang-related shooting on South Harbor Road and State Route 25 in Southold early Tuesday, police said.
According to Southold Town police, Freddie Fernando Torres Campos, 16, was arrested and charged with two counts of assault in the first degree, a felony, after the violent attack.
Police said Torres Campos was taken into custody at Southampton Hospital where he was admitted on the day of the shooting for treatment of a gunshot wound to his left ankle. Torres Campos, police said, is a member of the MS-13 street gang and was part of the group who attacked two men as they walked along Route 25 and South Harbor Road.
During the attack, Torres Campos was struck with a .22 calibre bullet fired by one of the other assailants, police said.
The arrest came one day after three suspects charged in a Tuesday shooting in Southold appeared before Judge Rudolph Bruer at Southold Town justice court Tuesday.
On Tuesday, after two men were shot on South Harbor Road in Southold, police identified and arrested the first three suspects in connection with the crime — and said they are members of the MS-13 street gang.
According to Southold Town Police, Pedro Emilio Santamaria, 31, of Greenport, Jeremias Nathanael Recinos Torres, 19, of Aquebogue, and Walter Vasquez, 17, of Greenport, were arrested after the attack.
The shootings occurred after midnight on Tuesday, police said. A responding officer spotted Santamaria and Recinos Torres in a parked vehicle a short distance from the scene of the shooting — and a loaded .22 calibre semi-automatic handgun was discovered in the vehicle, police said.
During the subsequent investigation, it was learned that Vasquez was also involved, police said; he was arrested at Greenport High School, where he is a student.
The victims remain hospitalized in Peconic Bay Medical Center.
Police said it appears that the incident stems from a dispute between some of the defendants and the victims that occurred at the Third Street Park in Greenport on Friday night — and it is believed that the victims are members of Mara-18 or 18th Street, a rival street gang.
The victims were spotted by the MS-13 members as they walked along the roadway on Route 25 and South Harbor Road where they both lived, police said. The MS-13 members then ambushed the victims, police said, and as many as five shots were fired from a .22 caliber handgun, with one of the victims attacked with a machete.
Santamaria and Recinos Torres were charged with assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, felonies; Vasquez was charged with assault in the first degree, a felony, police said, Additionally, it was learned that Vasquez and Recinos Torres are in the United States illegally and are currently in removal proceedings, police said; the investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected.
On Friday, Attorney Lane Bubka, of Riverhead, representing Vasquez, said all had pleaded not guilty and said, despite claims to the contrary, there was “no reason to believe” the shootings and machete attack were gang related.
Bubka said his client is only an eighth grader in the Greenport school district. “He is not part of a gang,” he said. “We discussed this at great length.” Bubka said Vasquez was acting ‘in self defense” and that the details of what happened are still being revealed. Of Vasquez, he said, “He’s just a child.”
Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. By law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
