Man ambushed 24-year-old he wrongly thought was gang rival in New York, feds say
A man accused of ambushing and killing a 24-year-old he wrongly thought was a gang rival was sentenced to prison in New York, federal prosecutors said.
Luis Filpo, now 25, fatally shot Roberto Vasquez in 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a May 12 news release.
Filpo was sentenced to 25 years behind bars after pleading guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, prosecutors said.
McClatchy News reached out to his attorneys May 13 and was awaiting a response.
Filpo, part of a Manhattan street gang known as “the 200s,” opened fire on a parked Mercedes on Jan. 31, 2019 in New York City, prosecutors said.
He was with fellow gang members, and they thought one of the people in the Mercedes had killed a 200s member a few months earlier, according to a court filing.
Instead, “none of the occupants in the Mercedes — Vasquez, his fiancee, and two other individuals — had anything to do with” that killing, a court filing said.
A bullet struck Vasquez’s throat, and Filpo “and his co-conspirators fled to New Jersey while Vasquez lay on the sidewalk dying,” the court filing said.
Vasquez was described in the filing as a beloved son and brother.
In a letter to the judge, Vasquez’s father described his son as “a gift from God, my first great love.”
Vasquez’s mother wrote in her own letter that he “was a good boy” who “did not deserve to die in such a horrible way,” adding that her “heart has been broken into a hundred thousand pieces.”
In a separate court filing, Filpo’s attorneys said Filpo is remorseful.
He led a difficult life and “turned to the 200s” at age 13 “to help support his family,” according to the filing. In 2019, when Vasquez was killed, Filpo “made the worst decision of his life by channeling his grief” over his friend’s death into violence, his attorneys said.
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Man ambushed 24-year-old he wrongly thought was gang rival in New York, feds say."
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