In the early morning hours of November 4, 2018, a 26-year-old man named Victor Alvarenga was shot and killed on a residential street in Flushing, Queens. Responding to a 911 call at approximately 4:30 a.m., police found Alvarenga near the corner of 45th Avenue and 163rd Street with multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy later confirmed that the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide.
The investigation into Alvarenga's death led authorities to focus on members of the notorious street gang MS-13. In May 2020, federal prosecutors announced charges against ten alleged members of the gang for a string of violent crimes in Queens, including the murder of Victor Alvarenga. Two alleged MS-13 associates, Douglas Melgar-Suriano, then 22, and Jairo Martinez-Garcia, then 21, both from Flushing, were charged with his murder. Authorities stated that Melgar-Suriano and Martinez-Garcia, along with a third individual, had lain in wait for Alvarenga. They approached him as he walked down the street and, after a brief interaction, Melgar-Suriano allegedly shot Alvarenga multiple times in the head and body. As Alvarenga lay wounded on the pavement, Martinez-Garcia also allegedly shot him.
The charges against Melgar-Suriano and Martinez-Garcia are part of a larger federal racketeering case against the MS-13 gang. Both men face the possibility of life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. The case has seen further developments, with a superseding indictment in June 2023 adding charges against another alleged MS-13 member, 23-year-old Tito Martinez-Alvarenga, for his role in Victor Alvarenga's murder. A subsequent superseding indictment in November 2024 reaffirmed that the murder of Victor Alvarenga is among the numerous crimes for which members and associates of MS-13 are being prosecuted. The extensive federal investigation involves multiple murders and other violent acts allegedly committed to increase the standing of the accused within the criminal organization.
