Two teens and girl injured in possible gang-related shooting

1 Houston

Houston News & Search

1 News - 1 eMovies - 1 eMusic - 1 eBooks - 1 Search

Photo: Mike Glenn

Image 1of/19

Caption

Image 1 of 19

Houston police are searching for gunmen responsible for a shooting in southwest Houston that sent three people to the hospital on April 12, 2017.

Keep clicking to learn more about the MS-13 gang.

Houston police are searching for gunmen responsible for a shooting in southwest Houston that sent three people to the hospital on April 12, 2017.

Keep clicking to learn more about the MS-13 gang.

Photo: Mike Glenn

Image 2 of 19

MS-13 is one of the most feared and brutal gangs in the world and has been responsible for crimes all across the western hemisphere, including a number of especially disturbing cases in Houston.

Here at the things you need to know about the deadly MS-13 gang. less

MS-13 is one of the most feared and brutal gangs in the world and has been responsible for crimes all across the western hemisphere, including a number of especially disturbing cases in Houston.

Here at … more

Photo: AFP, AFP/Getty Images

Image 3 of 19

1. The MS13 gang is known as Mara Salvatrucha. A recent federal indictment describing the gang notes that the name is a combination of Spanish slang terms: “Mara” is a word used in El Salvador for gang. “Salvatrucha” is combination of words, “Salva” an abbreviation for El Salvador and “trucha” which means, heads up.

A Mara Salvatrucha gang member attends a mass celebrated by Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto, Apostolic Nuncio to El Salvador, and head army and police chaplain Monsignor Fabio Colindres at a prison in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador, Monday in 2012.

less

Photo: Luis Romero, Associated Press

Image 4 of 19

2. The MS13 gang began in Los Angeles in the 1980s as a way for immigrants from El Salvador to protect themselves from predators in the immigrant community there.

A MS-13 gang member shows his tattoo identifying him as a member of that gang.

less

2. The MS13 gang began in Los Angeles in the 1980s as a way for immigrants from El Salvador to protect themselves from predators in the immigrant community there.

A MS-13 gang member shows his tattoo

… more

Photo: Courtesy Of FBI

Image 5 of 19

3. The MS13 gang consists primarily of people who are from Central America or are descendants of people from Central America. Most members have lineage from El Salvador, but it includes members with family ties to several countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and others.

J

ulian Garcia, a former MS13 gang member, had tattoos removed at the “Goodbye Tattoo” clinic in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Since the privately-funded clinic opened in 2000, volunteer workers have removed thousands of tattoos from young people who want to leave gang life behind.

less

Image 6 of 19

4. While the MS13 gang is mostly tied to El Salvador, it is currently illegal to be a gang member there.

Back in 2009 in Houston, a group of the MS-13 gang members entered a beauty saloon located nearby at 2724 Crossview to , commit an armed robber and rape an employee.

less

4. While the MS13 gang is mostly tied to El Salvador, it is currently illegal to be a gang member there.

Back in 2009 in Houston, a group of the MS-13 gang members entered a beauty saloon located nearby at

… more

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle

Image 7 of 19

5. MS13 gang members once created fear and drew attention with wild, dark tattoos that covered nearly their entire faces. Gang members had since stepped away from such a look in order to avoid being detected by law enforcement. The new generation of gang members are known to have far fewer tattoos, sometimes only some ink inside their lips or somewhere on their bodies that can be covered with clothing

This is a machete used by a MS-13 gang member during the armed robbery of a Houston Beauty Saloon back in 2009.

less

Photo: Courtesy Of The FBI

Image 8 of 19

6. Members of the MS13 gang who are illegally in the United States are known to use machetes instead of guns, as carrying the long-bladed weapon does not bring the same potential for a criminal charge as carrying a gun. Federal and state laws prohibit undocumented immigrants from having guns.

An MS-13 gang member shows his tattoo identifying him as a member of that gang. He participated in an armed robbery in a beauty saloon located at 2724 Crossview #106, in South West Houston, on January 17, 2009.

less

Photo: Courtesy Of FBI

Image 9 of 19

7. Members of the MS13 are known to display the gang’s colors – blue and white. Those are the same colors as the El Salvador flag.

Members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang at the Ciudad Barrios prison in Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador, Aug. 14, 2012.

less

7. Members of the MS13 are known to display the gang’s colors – blue and white. Those are the same colors as the El Salvador flag.

Members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang at the Ciudad Barrios prison in

… more

Photo: TOMAS MUNITA, New York Times

Image 10 of 19

8. MS13 gang members are known to mark their territory with graffiti of the letters MS as well as slogans unique to the gang.

An example of a tattoo of the gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). The Obama administration has labeled a violent Central American street gang as an international criminal organization subject to U.S. government sanctions, the first time this designation was given to such a group.

less

8. MS13 gang members are known to mark their territory with graffiti of the letters MS as well as slogans unique to the gang.

An example of a tattoo of the gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). The Obama

… more

Photo: Michael Johnson, Associated Press

Image 11 of 19

9. MS13 members are known to have three dots in their tattoos for the three destinations they expect to face in life – the hospital, death and jail.

Members of a MS-13 gang who were arrested in January, 29, 2009, used a shotgun to commit robberies. They were charged with aggravated assault against a beauty saloon located at 2724 Crossview.

less

9. MS13 members are known to have three dots in their tattoos for the three destinations they expect to face in life – the hospital, death and jail.

Members of a MS-13 gang who were arrested in January,

… more

Photo: FBI

Image 12 of 19

10. As members of the MS13 gang were deported from the United States to Central America, the gang grew in strength as it began operations from a country known for more corruption.

The daughter of Claudia Palma, who fled her native Honduras after suffering at the hands of her MS-13-affiliated boyfriend applied for asylum in Houston.

less

10. As members of the MS13 gang were deported from the United States to Central America, the gang grew in strength as it began operations from a country known for more corruption.

The daughter of Claudia

… more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 13 of 19

11. MS13 gang members pay dues at meetings. The money goes to help members who are in prison as well as support other gang activity.

Members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang build a greenhouse in Ilopango, El Salvador. The greenhouse, funded by the European Union, is one of many new programs that employs active gang members.

less

11. MS13 gang members pay dues at meetings. The money goes to help members who are in prison as well as support other gang activity.

Members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang build a greenhouse in Ilopango,

… more

Photo: Esteban Felix, Associated Press

Image 14 of 19

12. New male members of MS13 go through an initiation in which they are “jumped in” by being beaten by other gang members as another member counts aloud to 13.

A family in 2014 walks by a wall covered by a symbol from the Mara Salvatrucha gang in Ilopango, El Salvador. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

less

12. New male members of MS13 go through an initiation in which they are “jumped in” by being beaten by other gang members as another member counts aloud to 13.

A family in 2014 walks by a wall

… more

Photo: Esteban Felix, Associated Press

Image 15 of 19

13. Female members can be “jumped into” the gang by sex acts with the gang’s members instead of being beaten.

Two members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang are escorted while being transferred to another prison after a clash between rival gangs at the female prison in San Salvador, El Salvador in 2005. (AP Photo/Luis Romero)

less

13. Female members can be “jumped into” the gang by sex acts with the gang’s members instead of being beaten.

Two members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang are escorted while being transferred to another

… more

Photo: LUIS ROMERO, AP

Image 16 of 19

14. The “13” included in the gang’s name is thought to derive from the 13th letter of the alphabet, or “M.”

Photo: Marvin RECINOS, AFP/Getty Images

Image 17 of 19

15. Their main rivals are the Barrio 18, or 18th Street Gang.

MS-13 is in a perpetual gang war with Barrio 18. The fighting between both groups has largely contributed to the extreme violence in El Salvador.

15. Their main rivals are the Barrio 18, or 18th Street Gang.

MS-13 is in a perpetual gang war with Barrio 18. The fighting between both groups has largely contributed to the extreme violence in El Salvador.

Photo: Marvin RECINOS, AFP/Getty Images

Image 18 of 19

16. The gang’s wide-spread terror in El Salvador has caused mass migration

According to an El Salvadorian public opinion survey, 40 percent of people have “expressed a desire to migrate to another country.” In addition, 84 percent of forced displacements in El Salvador are gang-related, according to a report by the Civil Society Roundtable Against Forced Displacement by Violence and Organized Crime in El Salvador.

less

16. The gang’s wide-spread terror in El Salvador has caused mass migration

According to an El Salvadorian public opinion survey, 40 percent of people have “expressed a desire to migrate to another country.” In

… more

Photo: AFP, AFP/Getty Images

Image 19 of 19

Houston police are searching for the gunmen responsible for a shooting outside a southwest-side shopping center on Wednesday that sent three young people to the hospital.

The victims, an 11-year-old girl and two boys, believed to be about 15 or 16, were shot about 4 p.m. in the 5800 block of Renwick. They were taken to area hospitals with what Houston police said were non life-threatening injuries. The girl was shot in the arm while the two boys were shot in the foot and the leg.

MS-13 strikes Houston: Details emerge in alleged MS-13 ‘satanic’ killing of teen girl

The motive remains under investigation, but an officer identified the two boys as gang members. Police have not been able to locate anyone who actually saw what happened.

“There were people who heard gunshots,” said John Cannon, a Houston police spokesman. “They (the investigators) believe more than one suspect fired shots.”

Police were checking whether any security cameras in the vicinity might have captured the shooting.
The shopping center is adjacent to an apartment complex. Although the apartments are surrounded by a fence, there is easy access through a gate.

UNHOLY ALLIANCE: How the MS-13 formed an alliance with the Mexican cartels

A teenager who identified himself only as “Luis” said he knows all three shooting victims and spoke to them. He said they were shot on the grounds of the apartment complex then helped each other get through the gate and onto the shopping center parking lot where they fell. He was later questioned by HPD investigators.

A Houston police officer at the scene said the two teenage boys were “documented” members of the MS-13 street gang. The girl has no known gang involvement, the HPD officer said, and was simply with them when the assailants drove up and opened fire.

MS-13 or Mara Salvatrucha is a transnational criminal gang with most of its members coming from Central America. The gang has a reputation for extreme violence.