NEW YORK — The same New York City gang responsible for the brutal machete slaying of a 15-year-old boy in the Bronx last week is being blamed for critically injuring another teen days before, police told WPIX on Tuesday.
Cellphone video shows a large group of men attacking the 14-year-old victim on the median of the Bronx River Parkway near the East Gun Hill Road exit.
Police said members of the Trinitarios gang chased the teen on the busy parkway during rush hour on June 18. The teen was stabbed repeatedly and left on the median. He was rushed to the hospital where he remains in critical condition.
Ramon Paulino, 21, is in police custody in connection with the stabbing, while investigators hunt for several other men caught on camera kicking, punching and stabbing the teen.
Paulino has been charged with attempted murder, gang assault and assault.
Days later, on June 20, another boy -- 15-year-old Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz -- was dragged outside a Bronx bodega by a group of men who stabbed him as he struggled to defend himself. He died after running to a hospital three blocks away.
Guzman-Feliz's slaying was captured on surveillance video and sparked widespread community outrage.
Several men have been arrested in the killing of Guzman-Feliz. They are suspected of being members of the Trinitarios gang and face charges of murder, gang assault and assault.
The Trinitarios, many of them street-level drug dealers and enforcers, have made headlines in New York City since 2010, when then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara indicted 50 alleged members in a racketeering, murder and narcotics conspiracy.
Bharara noted at the time that the gang “brutally punished even its own members.”
It’s been estimated more than 1,000 members of the Trinitarios are operating in New York City. In 2014, a Spanish news outlet said the gang was the most dangerous group in Madrid.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting http://www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
