Coney Island Gang Members Sentenced For Deadly 2012 Stabbing

Two Coney Island men were sentenced Wednesday for a bloody 2012 stabbing attack against rival gang members that left one man dead and another with slash wounds to his throat, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson announced.

Alex “Shorty” Escamilla and Heiberto “Big Boy” Guerrero received sentences of 21 years to life in prison and 20 years in prison, respectively, for the attack. Authorities said the two men leapt out of a car near Neptune Avenue and West 15th Street to chase down two rival gang members. When they caught up with their victims, 28-year-old Jose Herrera and 22-year-old Angel Reyes, they assaulted them with a knife and metal pipe.

Herrera suffered 28 stab wounds to the face and body as well as 13 blunt force impact injuries to his head and face, according to the DA. He died from his injuries. Reyes suffered a laceration to the throat, prosecutors said.

“These two defendants engaged in senseless gang violence on the streets of Brooklyn and deserve every day that they will now spend behind bars,” Thompson said in a press release.

Thompson said the violence was due to an ongoing feud between Escamilla and Guerrero’s Coney Island Warriors and El Esquadron, to which Herrera and Reyes belonged.