On the afternoon of May 5, 2015, a verbal dispute in broad daylight at the intersection of Whitney and Roosevelt avenues in Queens, NY, turned deadly for 38-year-old Jorge Manzanarez. The male victim was shot once in the chest and was later pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital Center.
The shooter was identified as Raul Zamora, a 33-year-old member of the Sureno 13 gang from Jackson Heights.
Zamora, along with 35-year-old Isaac Martinez and a third, unidentified suspect, had engaged in a verbal altercation with Manzanarez before Zamora pulled out a gun and fired the fatal shot.
In the aftermath of the shooting, both Zamora and Martinez were apprehended. Zamora ultimately pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison, with an additional five years of post-release supervision. Isaac Martinez pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. For his role in the incident, Martinez received a sentence of 4.5 years behind bars, also followed by five years of post-release supervision. The third individual involved in the altercation that led to the death of Jorge Manzanarez has never been arrested.
