MS-13 goon slay charge
Held in Queens subway shooting
A reputed MS-13 member admitted he gunned down a rival gang member on a Queens subway platform Sunday, but claimed the gun merely went off in his hand and he “went black” before firing five more times, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Ramiro Gutierrez, 26, was hit with murder, gang assault and weapons possession charges for the bloody Sunday afternoon shooting, which left stunned straphangers scrambling for safety.
Victim Abel Mosso, 20, was shot repeatedly in the face.
In a statement to cops, Gutierrez minimized his role in the caught-on-video confrontation, claiming he was trying to break up a fight between three other men on the subway, according to Assistant District Attorney Bryan Kotowski.
“I was wrestling on the ground. I saw a gun and picked it up. I fingered the trigger and it went off. Then I went black,” he told cops, the prosecutor said at Gutierrez’s arraignment Tuesday.
But Kotowski placed the blame squarely on Gutierrez, accusing him of helping drag Mosso out of the train.
“He attacked and assaulted the victim. He kicked and punched the victim. The defendant stood and shot him several times in the face and body,” Kotowski said. “He got rid of his clothing, shaved his head, mustache and beard and part of his eyebrows.”
Mosso was a member of the 18th St. Gang, a rival of MS-13, officials said.
He and Gutierrez got into a fight on a Manhattan-bound No. 7 train as it pulled into the 90th St. station in Jackson Heights around 12:45 p.m.
The brawl spilled onto the platform when the doors opened, as one rider started recording it with his cell phone camera.
The video of the brawl, where gunshots are heard in the end, has since gone viral.
Police said during the fight Mosso pulled a gun but Gutierrez wrestled it away from him.
“I don’t know what happened, they just killed him,” Mosso’s cousin Jason Fuentes, 17, said Tuesday.Mosso was simply “picking up his girlfriend” when he was killed, Fuentes said, tears welling up in his eyes.
“I’m sad. I’m upset,” he added.” I’m feeling a little better now that they got the guy.”
A 59-year-old woman who would only identify herself as Vivi was on the opposite side of the platform when the shooting started. “There were people who were separating (Mosso and Gutierrez),” she said. “One person kept saying, ‘Give me! Give me!’ ” A moment later, she heard the gunshots “and saw the blood,” she said. “I saw the gun and everybody started screaming.”
“I feel bad for what happened because (Mosso) was only 20,” Vivi said. “The person who is guilty needs to pay.”
Gutierrez fired at least five shots into Mosso’s face from close range, police said. He died at the scene. The gunman ran off but was identified as Gutierrez and apprehended Monday.
Gutierrez has 12 prior arrests, cops said.
In December he was indicted along with 12 other MS-13 members, charged with conspiracy to commit a burglary and drug possession and freed on $2,500 bail.
He was arrested twice last May on stolen property charges.
His lawyer, Scott Bookstein, said the video alone isn’t sufficient to identify his client, and decried the national attention the case has received. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders used the shooting to promote the President’s proposed border wall.
“He’s been called a gang member …. They’re using this to promote xenophobia and a right-wing agenda,” Bookstein said. Gutierrez was ordered held without bail.
Mosso’s family claims he never had the gun he was ultimately shot with.