Justice for Junior: 2-year anniversary of teen's murder; would've graduated charter school
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Saturday marks two years since 15-year-old Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz was killed in a brutal gang attack outside a Bronx deli.
Guzman-Feliz, who was mistakenly targeted as a rival gang member by a group of 14 men all believed to be members of the Trinitarios gang, was supposed to have graduated from Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School in the Bronx this week.
Junior's murder stunned the city with its sickening depravity, and launched an international social-media movement under the hashtag #justiceforjunior that sought justice for the teen.
Justice would eventually come, but as then NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said last year, "I don't think the family will ever recover in a case like this. It never ends for victims."
Five gang members have been convicted thus far. One man sentenced to life in prison without parole and the other four serve 20-plus years to life.
One year ago, a vigil and march were held as friends and family started at Junior's church, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, before marching to the bodega. The march was similar to the route Junior took that night, when he ran for his life.
Leandra Feliz, the mother of the Bronx teenager, became the face of grief for Junior.
Feliz has been advocating for a bill to have panic buttons installed in all bodegas.
"My son has already passed," she said last year of what she hoped would be called Junior's Law. "They killed my son. We have to protect our future kids and our community."
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