Shocking CCTV footage shows murdered teen being dragged out of a bodega and stabbed; 7 arrested
Shocking new footage has emerged of the moment 15-year-old Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz was fatally stabbed by a gang in front of bodega in Bronx. The footage was taken from CCTV cameras at the corner store the aspiring detective was at before he was dragged out of the bodega. The slain teen struggled on the ground as two men from the gang pulled him out of the store late on June 20 night. The teen can be seen desperately trying to grab onto a shelf inside the store but the two men, who were much larger, were able to drag him out where three other men joined them and they started beating and stabbing him.
The seven men in total, who were responsible for the brutal attack on the teen that led to his death, were arrested by the authorities on June 24. One of the suspects who was arrested by the NYPD is 19-year-old Kevin Alvarez. He has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, gang assault, and assault so far. The six other men involved in the fatal attack were arrested in New Jersey. They have been named as follows: 21-year-old Jose Muniz, 21-year-old Jose Taverez, 18-year-old Manuel Rivera, 21-year-old Danel Fernandez, 24-year-old Santiago Rodriguez, and 24-year-old Joniki Martinez, the Daily Mail reported.
The authorities in New Jersey have said that they found clues to where the suspects from the Trinitarios gang, a Dominican gang based in New York, were hiding. A statement was released by the NYPD on June 24 night that read: "The Department has identified multiple suspects and is in the process of interviewing some of them at this time. Initial arrests have been made, and more are anticipated. The NYPD thanks the public for the outpouring of tips in this case, and encourages people to continue to come forward if they have information to share. Additional information will be released as it becomes available and confirmed."
The attack took place outside the Zesarina Grocery on East 183rd Street in the Belmont section of the Bronx. Detectives have said that the murder was a "case of mistaken identity over a sex tape" and that the teen had been involved in an argument with the gang members that ultimately led to his murder.
Facebook user Riichy Rich was the first one to upload a video of the attack on the social media website. It showed the men dragging the 15-year-old out of the store and then stabbing and cutting him with a machete before they took off on foot. A few seconds later, the boy can be seen standing on the corner of the street with blood gushing out of the wound he had on his neck. He can then be seen running towards the St. Barnabas Hospital which was nearby.
The authorities have said that the teen fatally injured but never made it to the hospital and collapsed just a block away from it. Another video that was taken by a bystander shows the teen covered in blood and slumped on the sidewalk leaning against a wall. One woman can be seen desperately trying to help the boy by applying pressure to his neck wound before the paramedics and the police arrived on the scene. Unfortunately, Guzman-Feliz died where he sat a block away from the hospital.
ABC 7 New York reported that the authorities have said the teen asked for water with his dying breath. Detectives on the case said that he had told his mother he was heading to the bodega, which is a block away from where he stayed, to either pay someone back or to give $5 to a friend of his. 17-year-old Genesis Collado-Feliz, the teen's sister, said that Guzman-Feliz was a lover of video games and he would often go to her for girl advice. She also said that he had recently made friends with a bunch of older boys but also insisted that he was definitely not a part of a gang.
She told the New York Post: "He tried to run into the store because he thought he'd be safe. They dragged him from the store like a dog. They were grown men and he was only 15." The 15-year-old was a student at the Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School. He was an aspiring detective reported News 12 The Bronx. A GoFundMe page started by the family, Justice for Junior, has raised more than $230,000 of it's $15,000 goal for his funeral expenses as of June 26 morning.
A user on Instagram, who was constantly boasting about how he murdered Guzman-Feliz, posted a video over the weekend that showed the Bronx teen bleeding out on the sidewalk. The user, @chippy.caine_bx, wrote in the Instagram post: "This who ya should be mad at. Pigs was down the strip the whole time and coulda saved that boy life. We ain’t realize it wasn’t him till it went viral. Nypd been corrupt and killed plenty of my n—as!" The authorities are currently looking for the user who has claimed to have been a part of the murder on June 20 night. He created the profile on June 22 and called himself "untouchable" all while bragging about his involvement in the crime.
The user wrote in one of the posts: "Ya said I would be dead or in jail by now. What happen?" There have been other accounts on the social media website that have been created using similar usernames over the past few days. One of the users called @chippy.cainebx reportedly showed a kitchen knife in one of the posts that he claimed was the one that killed Guzman-Feliz, the New York Post reported.
In the first Instagram post on June 22, Caine wrote that the only way he would be apprehended by the police is if he turned himself in. He wrote in a post: "Keep sleepin on us trini n—as," in what is a clear reference to the dangerous Trinitarios street gang which was the gang that allegedly killed the teen. He added: "No n—a getting away with rape ion give a f*** who it is." In another post, he wrote: "Ya n—as dumb mad I’m still free n ima stay free ! This lifestyle not for ya so don’t act like u know wtf goin on ! Junior was a mistake but the next nigga won’t be !!"
Investigators in the case have said that the people who launched the brutal attack on Guzman-Feliz killed him in what is believed to be a case of mistaken identity. A female relative of one of the gang members was filmed having sex with the man who is believed to have been the one the gang mistook Guzman-Feliz for. Caine had threatened all users on social media who re-posted the sex video by saying: "Stop repostin bro sister or we gon find u. I got gang in ya state!"
Officers from the New York Police Department are on the lookout for the Instagram user.
Guzman-Feliz was a member of the NYPD Explorers and he had hoped to become a detective one day. Another post that was put up by one of the Caine accounts shows the alleged knife used to kill Guzman-Feliz lying in a pool of blood on what looks like a wooden surface. The caption for the post read: "Police already know who I am, that dont mean they gonna catch me. Ya dont even know the real story why we did it and I wont snitch on gang."
One of the other Caine posts seemed to indicate regret: "Maybe I do deserve to die I shoulda been dead already with the s**t I been thru but it aint eva stop me. When my time come Ima be ready and the police gon have to kill me."