In the early moments of May 18, 2007, a young man named Maurice Parker was standing outside the El Boom Convenience Store on Bowne Street in Flushing, Queens, engrossed in a cell phone conversation. It was just after midnight, a seemingly ordinary night that was about to take a tragic and violent turn. Parker, a 21-year-old male, had recently returned to Queens from Maryland, where he had completed trade school.
An aspiring hip-hop artist known to his friends as 'Moe Greazy,' he was an avid basketball player who had attended Flushing High School.
Unbeknownst to Parker, his life was about to be senselessly cut short. That night, members of the notorious MS-13 street gang were prowling the streets of Queens, looking to commit a drive-by shooting. Two individuals, Oscar “Taz” Fuentes, the reputed leader of the New York chapters of MS-13, and another member, Oscar “Flecha” Chavez, spotted Parker. Mistaking him for a member of a rival gang simply because of the red hoodie he was wearing, they decided he would be their victim. Fuentes and Chavez exited their vehicle, ran up to Parker, and Chavez allegedly fired multiple shots, striking him in the head. Maurice Parker was pronounced dead at the scene.
The brutal and random nature of Parker's murder sent shockwaves through the Flushing community. In the days that followed, hundreds of residents gathered for a rally to protest the gang violence that had claimed a promising young life. Parker’s memory was later honored with the Maurice Parker Memorial Classic basketball tournament. The investigation into his death led to the arrests of Fuentes and Chavez. In March 2009, they were arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on murder charges.
The subsequent legal proceedings brought some measure of justice for Maurice Parker and his grieving community. In March 2011, a federal jury convicted both Oscar Fuentes and Julio 'Flecha' Chavez of murder and related firearm offenses. Fuentes was also found guilty of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Following their convictions, both men received life sentences for their roles in the senseless killing. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District stated that on the night of the murder, the gang members were 'hunting for a victim,' and Maurice Parker was tragically 'murdered simply for standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.'
