2nd suspect charged in 2022 fatal shooting at Hempstead McDonald's

A Hempstead teen has been arrested and charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a man in broad daylight last September outside a Hempstead Village McDonald’s, Nassau police said Wednesday.

Police declined to identify the 18-year-old suspect because he was a juvenile when 19-year-old Hector Valencia Gomez, also from Hempstead, was gunned down at the fast-food restaurant on Sept. 14.

The teen faces a second-degree murder charge, according to the Nassau District Attorney's Office. He is the second suspect to be charged in connection with Gomez's death.

In March, Gerson Hernandez, also of Hempstead, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree gang assault charges in the shooting.

Brendan Brosh, a spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly, said Judge Tammy Robbins ordered the latest defendant held without bail at his arraignment Tuesday. The suspect’s lawyer, Jeffrey Groder, did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Hernandez, an alleged MS-13 member, is an immigrant from El Salvador lacking legal status who came to the United States through Texas in 2016, then fled the state after being charged with second-degree assault in 2021, police said earlier this year. He was arrested on Feb. 17 in Maryland on a bench warrant related to the 2021 assault. Hernandez was extradited back to Nassau in March to face charges connected to the killing and a second homicide.

The Homicide Squad also issued a Crime Stoppers alert for Wilson Yanes, 22, of Hempstead, in connection with the killing of Valencia Gomez.