CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WTVR)--He was on the run for six months, wanted for killing a 14-year-old boy.
Suspected MS-13 gang member Luis Carlos Guzman Ventura, 19, was found in a Chesterfield home, and it wasn’t the first time police have linked accused gang members from Maryland to our area.
Early Tuesday morning a home on White Fawn Drive in southern Chesterfield had been surrounded by U-S Marshals and police.
“I saw the officers run across right to the guy’s house," Perry Griffith. "And then I heard them beat on the door real loud."
Sources say Ventura tried to run out the back, but fell into the presence of several officers waiting with their weapons drawn.
"It happened right across the street,” said Lindsay Stryker. “I have two young children: you just never know."
Police say Ventura was the triggerman in the drive-by shooting death of a teenage boy in Prince Georges County, Maryland in December of last year.
A law enforcement source we spoke with who has intimate knowledge of the MS-13 gang says it's not uncommon to find members in Central Virginia. In fact, the source says, there have been been several MS-13 gang members arrested locally who have direct ties to Prince Georges County.
"I guess I need to start talking to my neighbors, because I really keep to myself," said Griffith.
A representative from the attorney general's office recently told CBS-6 that gang violence in our area is prevalent, even though the state has successfully convicted 17 members with a total of 359 years of incarceration on the books.
According to neighbors, Ventura had been living in a tent next door for months until last week's storm forced him to move inside. Griffith says he had no idea there was a $75,000 reward for a suspect living just a few feet away.
"I wish I would've known,” he said. “I would've grabbed him myself."
Sources tell me Ventura had been homeless and living in South Hill, but was invited to stay with two tenants living at that Chesterfield address.
We have a request in to see just how many alleged MS-13 members police say might be living in Chesterfield County. Those numbers haven't been provided yet.
