Hector Gonzalez, 28, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting and killing a man during a Lindenhurst bar brawl in 2018. Photo Credit: SCPD
By Chau Lam
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Updated March 1, 2019 12:00 PM
A self-described member of the Latin Kings street gang was sentenced this week in Riverhead to 15 years in prison for shooting and killing a man during a Lindenhurst bar brawl in 2018, according to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office.
Hector Gonzalez, 28, of Huntington Station, who was initially charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty to a lesser crime of first-degree manslaughter on Jan. 23, said Sheila Kelly, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
Gonzalez shot Herminio Torres, 25, in the chest during the March 31 fight that started inside a restaurant-lounge on Sunrise Highway and continued as it moved down the road, officials said. Other individuals beat Torres, and Gonzalez shot him three more times, including in the back of the head.
Torres, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, where he was pronounced dead.
Police have said the men knew each other.
Gonzalez’s latest attorney, Michael Brown of Central Islip, said the fight started inside the restaurant-lounge, but it was unclear who started it or who was involved.
“The bouncer started [spraying people with Mace] and the whole crew poured out of the bar,” he said.
The bar where the brawl erupted is a known gang hangout, officials said, and the fight was between members of the Latin Kings and their “associates.”
Three others involved in the fight were stabbed and the fourth was shot in the chest, though the injuries were not life-threatening, officials have said.
Brown said Torres stabbed at least three people who were Gonzalez’s friends outside.
“Mr. Gonzalez came to the aid of his friends,” Brown said in an interview.
Brown said there is no evidence that Gonzalez belonged to a gang.
