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News > Latin America

El Salvador: Suspected MS-13 Members Kill Family of 4

  • A Salvadoran policeman guards buses as 1,282 members of the Barrio 18 gang are transferred from a jail in Cojutepeque.

    A Salvadoran policeman guards buses as 1,282 members of the Barrio 18 gang are transferred from a jail in Cojutepeque. | Photo: Reuters

Published 6 November 2017
Opinion

The father, who was a member of the Barrio 18 gang, received a gunshot wound to the head and later his chest was carved with the initials "MS."

Two brothers, Josue Gabriel, 10, and Edwin Obed, 2, were killed with a shotgun and nine-millimeter handgun by suspected gang members at the San Cristobal farm in the canton of Potrero Grande Arriba, in Santa Ana, El Salvador this weekend. 

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Their parents, Gabriel de Jesus Cristales Alcantara (35) and his partner Marta Alicia Sagastume Lopez (30), were also killed in the attack, Prensa Grafica reported.

According to authorities, several gang members intercepted the children when they walked in the middle of a coffee plantation with their mother and father. Gabriel was shot in the forehead while his younger brother was shot in the stomach. Their mother was shot twice in the abdomen and once in her right knee.

The father, who was a member of the Barrio 18 gang, received a gunshot wound to the head and later his chest was carved with the initials "MS," which stands for Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. Authorities believe that the marking was an attempt to to attribute the murder to opposing gang members.

Melvin Alexis Gomez Zaldaña, Jose Kevin Martínez Lopez and Mario Alonso Henríquez were arrested for the family's murder. The couple had been separated for several months but last night, Cristales Alcantara had arrived at the farm to bring Sagastume Lopez their children so they could spend time with her.

Authorities suspect that all four family members were killed by gang members who were associated with Cristales Alcantara. Police also reported that he was wanted for homicide and had been a fugitive of the law for several years, La Prensa reported.

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