MS-13 gang members attacked LI teens with bats and knives: DA

Three reputed MS-13 gang members have been busted in a bat-and-knife attack on a group of teens outside a Long Island burger joint, authorities announced Thursday.

Ramon Aravelo-Lopez, 19, Oscar Canales-Molina, 17, and Nobel Montes-Zuniga, 20, are accused of jumping the Huntington Station teens in the parking lot of a Burger King as they were walking out on Wednesday, said Suffolk County DA Timothy Sini.

Inside the eatery, “the teens noticed a group of approximately six Hispanic males who they recognized from school, including the three defendants, staring at them in a menacing way,” Sini said.

They were uncomfortable so they left the restaurant. “But they were followed by the defendants,” the DA said.

Once outside the alleged gangbangers “charged the teens while wielding bats and knives and an altercation broke out between the two groups,” Sini continued.

Aravelo-Lopez allegedly stabbed a 16-year-old victim in the back. The victim survived and another had minor injuries, prosecutors said.

The perps fled the scene in a black 2007 Toyota but were found with blood on their clothes and hands when they were arrested shortly after, according to prosecutors.

Sini said the incident was “essentially random acts of violence. “

Authorities were able to trace the men back to the notoriously violent Salvadoran-based gang by running them through a database of MS-13 members.

Araveles-Lopes and Canales-Molina are both illegal immigrants who have been picked up by Homeland Security on prior occasions but were ultimately released, prosecutors said. Montes-Zuniga is also an illegal immigrant, officials said.

They are each charged with second-degree assault and face up to seven years behind bars of convicted.

They were arraigned in Suffolk County court Thursday and held in lieu of $35,000 bail. Aravelo-Lopez’s lawyer, Jason Bassett, said his client is innocent.

“It appears that my client was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Bassett said.

The other two defendants’ attorneys did not immediately return request for comment.

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