Angel Rosario of West Farms, the Bronx, knows the brutality of gang violence.
In January 2017, Cindy Diaz, the mother of Rosario’s four children, was an innocent victim, fatally shot by a stray bullet in the middle of a gang dispute.
“A guy was trying to shoot another guy and missed him and got her,” Rosario said. “Nowadays, they’re just doing whatever they want. These gang guys are shooting, and they don’t care who they hit. They don’t care they took away a mother of four, they don’t care,” said Rosario.
The still grieving father joined hundreds of other concerned Bronx residents packed into the Mount Carmel Neighborhood Senior Center on Southern Blvd. to discuss the dangers of street gangs.
Eight men, all suspected to be members of a Dominican street gang called the Trinitarios, were arrested this week and charged in the mistaken-identity attack that left Lesandro (Junior) Guzman-Feliz dead of knife and machete wounds. In another incident, another teen was chased onto the Bronx River Parkway by Trinitarios members and stabbed repeatedly, leaving him clinging to life.
On Wednesday night, Sgt. Leo Nugent, of the Bronx gang squad, told the capacity crowd that he wouldn’t discuss the recent cases because police were still investigating.
But he did want to warn the children in the audience that kids as young as 12 were being drafted into the street life.
“Young kids in here. Rikers? There’s nothing funny about it,” he said. “I want to try to help you catch your kids before we do.”
He and Detective Belinda Delgado, also of the gang squad, stressed the role social media is playing in gang communication.
Nugent told parents to watch what their kids are doing online because it is the primary form of communication for gangs.
“Social media, I can’t stress it enough. Your child, if they are a part of a gang, you have to monitor that. Social media is what they’re turning to. We as a community need to step up and address that,” said Nugent.
Emmy Ramirez, of Pelham Parkway, meets regularly with neighborhood coordinating officers concerning gang violence.
“I know these kids are not educated about the gangs. They think it’s a trend now, but they don’t understand that there are codes and laws they have to abide by. They have to be aware of initiations and things like that,” she said. “These meetings need to keep happening.”
