THE BRONX — Elvin Garcia had a stab wound through his left hand, when he turned up at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in the early hours of June 21, just hours after a 15-year-old named Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz was savagely knifed by a mob in the Bronx.
An investigative source revealed to PIX11 that Garcia told emergency room personnel that he’d gotten stabbed during a fight, after someone disrespected his girlfriend.
Hospital staff notified police about the patient’s remarks.
When the NYPD arrested Garcia five days later, one of 14 people detectives have picked up in Junior’s murder—he had medical gauze wrapped around his left hand.
This is just one of the anecdotes PIX11 learned, as we got access to new surveillance evidence in the case, along with case documents.
The Junior Files reveal that investigators searched shelters, checked Department of Correction visitor’s logs, and did old-fashioned pounding of the pavement to visit last-known addresses for many of the suspects.
Some of the surveillance we reviewed showed suspects running to four cars outside the bodega on Bathgate Avenue, after multiple men stabbed Junior repeatedly with knives and one machete.
The first, six suspects were arrested in Paterson, New Jersey, on June 24, after police there received a tip on a 911 call that they were hiding out in a Trinitario safehouse.
The most recent suspect, Frederick Then, turned himself in to police this past Sunday, September 16, telling reporters in Spanish outside the 48th precinct that he was innocent—and only turned himself in “because police were looking for me.”
See Part 1 of “The Junior Files” here: New videos show Bronx teen trying to outrun gang street chase
Part 3 of “The Junior Files” will air Thursday night. PIX11’s Mary Murphy will have exclusive reports on “The Junior Files” all week.
