Police: Man killed in gang-related stabbing

Gang members who thought they had come face to face with four of their rivals in a Hempstead bar stabbed two men outside the club early Thursday, killing one, Nassau homicide detectives said.

As the stabbing victims were being rushed to a hospital after the 2:30 a.m. skirmish outside El Pacifico Bar, their driver crashed into a taxi five blocks away, injuring the taxi driver, his passenger and a pedestrian who was struck by flying debris, said Det. Lt. John Azzata, commander of the homicide squad.

The incident was being investigated by the police department's gang suppression unit and homicide detectives, he said.

"They believed that the four individuals were members of a gang known as 18th Street," Azzata said, referring to members of the MS-13 gang. "As a matter of fact, while these individuals were being attacked, they were yelling at them something to do with 18th Street, and the four individuals were yelling back, 'We're not 18th Street.' "

Azzata outlined what happened Thursday at a news conference at police headquarters in Mineola, but he declined to provide the names of the victims.

One of the stabbing victims was pronounced dead shortly before 4 a.m. at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola. The other stabbing victim was admitted and was expected to survive, police said.

Police said the cabdriver and his passenger were removed from the wreck by Hempstead firefighters. They were taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The pedestrian was taken to Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre with minor injuries.

"He was fine," Hempstead Police Lt. Francis McNamee said. "Up and walking around, minor injuries."

Azzata said the incident began when four men entered the bar near North Franklin and Jackson street, sat down and ordered beer.

One of the men stood up to go to a bathroom and was confronted by someone who accused him and his friends of being members of the 18th Street gang.

The man returned to his friends and the group decided to leave, "whereupon they were attacked in the front of the establishment," Azzata said. "Two of the four were stabbed. One of the four fled the scene on foot. The three remaining individuals entered a Golf Volkswagen."

The group drove two blocks south on North Franklin and turned left on Fulton Avenue, but collided with an El Salvador Taxi Co. car three blocks later at the intersection with Clinton Street.

Azzata said the accident did not contribute to the stabbing victim's death. It was unclear how the accident occurred, police said.

The accident and crime scenes in the heart of commercial Hempstead snarled traffic well into the morning rush hour.

Crime scene investigators took measurements on North Franklin Street. They dusted the plate-glass windows and door of El Pacifico behind yellow police tape cordoning off the storefronts of Goodyear Auto Services, El Pacifico, Amanecer Restaurant and a corner bodega.

Police closed southbound traffic on North Franklin from Jackson Street to Fulton for much of the morning, as well as on Fulton from Washington Street to Robson Place, and on Clinton from Cooper Street West to Jackson. The roads were reopened about 10 a.m.