Editor’s Note: There have been additional arrests since this story was posted.
SOUTHBURY, Conn. — The 12th and final suspect wanted in the brutal machete killing of Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz was found by Connecticut State Police Monday on a homicide warrant from New York State.
A law enforcement source told PIX11 News that Luis A. Cabrarasantos, 25, of the Bronx, was stopped on Interstate 84 in Southbury, Conn., at about 2:36 p.m. Monday and was taken into custody.
The source said Cabrarasantos seemed surprised when he was arrested.
Cabrarasantos was driving the gray Honda that investigators said was part of a four-vehicle pursuit that chased Guzman-Feliz into a Bronx bodega where he sought refuge from his would-be killers. The night of June 20, the teen was dragged from that bodega and set upon by a gang of men armed knives and a machete. He suffered a lethal slash wound to his throat and tried to run to a nearby hospital but collapsed and died on the sidewalk.
The source said the latest suspect was part of the original chase, which started behind St. Barnabas Hospital, was at the scene where the attack took place, and then took part in the getaway of the suspects who used knives and a machete to kill the teen.
Eleven suspects have appeared before judges in New York City, so far.
Cabrarasantos was held on a $1 million bond and transported to New Haven Correction Center where he is being held pending a court appearance at Waterbury Superior Court before extradition back to New York on Tuesday.
In addition to Cabrarasantos, these individuals — all accused members of the Trinitarios gang — are in custody in connection with Guzman-Feliz’s murder:
- Danilo Payamps Pacheco, 21
- Danel Fernandez, 21
- Jose Muniz, 21
- Manuel Rivera, 18
- Santiago Rodriguez, 24
- Kevin Alvarez, 19
- Elvin Garcia, 23
- Joniki Martinez, 24
- Jose Taverez, 21
- Diego Suero, 29
- Gabriel Ramirez Concepcion, 26
The gang has been linked repeatedly to narcotics trafficking and federal prosecutors indicted dozens of gang members in racketeering cases earlier this decade.
Members of the Trinitarios also were blamed for the June 18 attack on a 14-year-old year boy in the Bronx. Two days before Guzman-Feliz was killed, gang members chased another teen, this time onto the Bronx River Parkway median where they repeatedly beat and stabbed the boy, who underwent emergency surgery and lost a kidney. Police said that case and the killing of Guzman-Feliz are linked.
Guzman-Feliz’s mother said he’d wanted to be police detective since he was 5 years old. The slain teen was a member of the NYPD Explorers Program for youth interested in a career in law enforcement.
