The deli on the corner of 162nd Street and Station Road where Jose “Smoker” Alvarenga fatally shot Fernando Gonzalez-Chavez in 2017. (Google Maps)
Nov. 20, 2019 By Michael Dorgan
A purported MS-13 gang member has been given a life sentence for killing a former gang member outside a Flushing deli.
Hempstead resident Jose “Smoker” Alvarenga, 29, was found guilty earlier this month of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon after fatally shooting Fernando Gonzalez-Chavez in 2017.
At approximately midnight on May 31, 2017, Alvarenga approached Gonzalez-Chavez who was crouching against a wall by 7 & 7 Deli on the corner of 162nd Street and Station Road.
Alvarenga is seen on video surveillance entering the deli and then exiting. Fourteen seconds later, Alvarenga stood in front of the 39-year-old victim – who had stopped being an active member of the MS-13 gang – fired his pistol once into the chest of Gonzalez-Chavez and then threw him to the ground.
He died within minutes at the scene – the bullet penetrated both lungs, the aorta and esophagus.
Alvarenga fled the scene but was apprehended on July 27, 2017, after police received a tip from an individual with knowledge of the shooting.
“The defendant, after searching for the victim, purposely shot him and left him to die on a street corner on the side of a Queens’s deli,” Acting District Attorney John M. Ryan said.
“The defendant showed no mercy to the victim and has shown no remorse for his actions.”
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