Cops: 2 arrested in fatal Hempstead assault

Two men have been arrested in a 2010 gang-style assault in Hempstead Village that left one man dead and two others injured, Nassau police said Wednesday.

Nelson Contreras, 27, of 76 Fairview Blvd., Hempstead, was charged with murder in the stabbing death on April 18, 2010, of Benito Salazar, 23, of Uniondale.

Jose D. Quijada, 38, of 358 Fenimore Ave., also of Uniondale, was charged with three counts of first-degree gang assault.

The identity of Salazar was not released by police until Wednesday. Officials were not available Wednesday to provide information on Salazar or the suspects.

During the early morning hours of April 18, 2010, Hempstead Village police responded to a 911 call and found three men with a knife and broken-bottle slash wounds outside an electronics store at 69 Main St., police said.

One victim, now identified as Salazar, was taken to Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, where he was pronounced dead. Another man required surgery for an abdominal wound and the third man received stitches for an arm laceration, police said.

The case came after a rash of violent crimes in the village that had prompted local government and civic leaders to hold a community meeting two weeks earlier and the hiring of 17 additional village police officers.

The April 18 case took place in the heart of Hempstead Village, near the intersection of Fulton Avenue and Main Street, two blocks from Hempstead police headquarters and village hall, and one block from the Nassau County First District Court building.

Contreras and Quijada were both scheduled for arraignment in that court building Thursday.