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Mount Vernon resident Emmanuel Valentin Perez was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fatally shooting Sleepy Hollow resident Manuel Salazar in June 2021, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office announced on Friday, Jan. 12.
According to the DA's Office, on June 28, 2021, around 9:30 p.m., Perez, who was 18 years old at the time of the shooting, shot Salazar once in the abdomen with a Lorcin pistol during a dispute at Margotta Courts Park in Sleepy Hollow.
Salazar was then taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he was pronounced dead.
The gunshot that killed Salazar also wounded a second victim who was hospitalized, treated, and released.
An investigation conducted by authorities that used surveillance video, ballistics evidence, and witness interviews eventually identified Perez as the suspect and allowed police to recover the gun used in the incident. Perez was arrested outside his Mount Vernon home on June 29, 2021, the day after the shooting.
He later pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault on Thursday, Aug. 17. After his prison sentence is finished, he will be subject to five years of supervised release.
During sentencing proceedings, Salazar's wife read a victim impact statement to the court: "Imagine waking up the next day and telling your kids they will never be able to see, hear, touch, talk, or hug their dad again. Manuel was the most loving husband.... Losing him has changed my life forever.”
Westchester District Attorney Miriam Rocah also condemned the murder, saying, "This senseless act of gun violence took away a father and husband leaving a family devastated. We must be vigilant in our fight to keep guns out of the hands of people who use them for harm.”
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