Yeri Hernandez Gabino, an 18-year-old Hispanic/Latino male, was killed on the morning of September 24, 2017, in south Nashville, Tennessee, in what police described as a targeted attack. Just after daybreak at the Maple Crest Apartments on Natchez Court, Gabino was inside a black Lincoln MKS sedan with another victim, Hector Jose Pagada, when gunfire erupted into the quiet of the complex’s parking area.
By the time officers arrived, both men had been shot to death, and the scene had the unnerving stillness of something planned—an ambush carried out quickly and then swallowed by fleeing vehicles and panicked footsteps.
Investigators soon focused on what surveillance video appeared to show: a white Chevrolet Traverse pulling up close enough to trap or box in the Lincoln, followed by shooters getting out and firing multiple times. The attackers then climbed back into the SUV and sped away. Police also believed the driver of the Lincoln ran into the apartment complex before officers got on scene, leaving behind the riddled car and the two bodies inside it. In the days that followed, the case tightened around that white Traverse—reported as later being recovered in Rutherford County—and around the idea that the killers had come to that spot looking for specific people, not a random target.
As detectives worked backward through the minutes before the shooting, they publicly sought a man they believed drove into the complex just before the attack, Pedro Tineo, saying they needed to question him about what happened and why the victims were there. Police indicated they were examining whether the victims were passengers in the Lincoln and whether Tineo had brought them to the apartments shortly before they were murdered. FOX 17 later reported that officers located and interviewed Tineo, closing one urgent gap in the timeline even as investigators continued to chase the larger questions of motive and who exactly climbed out of the Traverse with a gun.
Arrests followed within weeks. Authorities charged Oscar Delgado-Flores, of Smyrna, with two counts of criminal homicide in connection with the killings, with reporting indicating he admitted in an interview that he was the driver of the Traverse that arrived at the complex. Police also said more arrests were anticipated as the investigation progressed. A second suspect, Luis Miguel Colindres-Varela, was identified as a believed gunman; warrants were obtained charging him with the murders, and he was later arrested in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and charged with two counts of criminal homicide as well.
Over time, the case also appeared in federal filings tied to MS-13 racketeering prosecutions. In August 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee announced an indictment charging Oscar Degaldo Flores and Luis Colindres with murder in aid of racketeering and other counts, alleging that on September 24, 2017, they shot and killed two individuals identified in the indictment only by initials, including one described as being killed to prevent communication with law enforcement about another murder. Years later, a Justice Department announcement summarizing sentencings in a major MS-13 case listed long federal prison terms for Luis Colindres and Oscar Delgado-Flores, reflecting how what began as a double homicide in an apartment parking lot ultimately became part of a broader gang-conspiracy prosecution in federal court.
