A leader of the Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas (HLS) MS-13 gang was sentenced to 17 years in prison for two attacks that targeted eight victims with knives and machetes at a local soccer field in Hempstead and a Uniondale laundromat in 2024.
On October 20, 2024, at approximately 4:25 p.m., Elias Serrano Bonilla and several co-conspirators attacked six victims with knives and a machete as the victims were playing soccer in broad daylight at Kennedy Memorial Park in Hempstead.
Bonilla is considered among the HLS gang as a “homeboy,” or leader. On the day of the alleged incident, surveillance video recovered from the scene showed Bonilla walking along the fence line of the soccer field and approaching the victims.
Bonilla and his co-conspirators then began to kick and punch the victims. Co-conspirator Pedro Martinez Velasquez used a machete to strike a victim in the left forearm. Another co-conspirator, Kelvin Martinez, removed a knife from his pants pocket and stabbed a victim in the chest.
Among the injuries sustained by all six victims, who range in age from 20 to 51 years old, one victim was stabbed in his left shoulder, another victim was stabbed in his rib cage, requiring the removal of his gallbladder and repair to his diaphragm and liver, and another victim was struck by the machete in his left forearm, causing a deep laceration.
Bonilla, Velasquez and Martinez fled after the attack, entered another co-conspirator’s vehicle, and drove away from the scene.
A court-authorized search warrant of the getaway vehicle uncovered a knife with an eagle-shaped handle with the letters “MS” etched into it.
On December 18, 2024, at approximately 8:48 p.m., Bonilla, Velasquez, and Martinez, attacked two victims with white pipes and a machete as the victims were parked outside the Super Laundromat in Uniondale.
Surveillance video recovered from the scene showed Bonilla punching one victim as he exited the front passenger seat of a vehicle.
Martinez is seen on video kicking another victim in the chest as he attempted to run and holding that victim while another MS-13 gang member swung and struck the victim with a machete multiple times.
The attackers identified themselves as MS-13 gang members and stated they were going to kill the victims.
One victim was struck with a machete multiple times and suffered a deep laceration to his left forearm and multiple cuts to his back. Another victim was struck with a white pipe and suffered a deep laceration to his forehead and multiple cuts to his body.
Bonilla was arrested on August 8, 2025, at his home in East Meadow by members of the Nassau County Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Martinez and Velasquez were each sentenced on April 30, 2026, to 12 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision.
Serrano Bonilla, 22, pleaded guilty on July 2, 2026, before Judge Joy Watson to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree (a Class B violent felony); Conspiracy in the Second Degree (a Class B felony); and Assault in the Second Degree (a Class D violent felony).
The defendant was sentenced on August 18, 2026 to 17 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision.
“One of my top priorities is weeding out MS-13 gang members and their violence from Nassau County, and this sentence represents another significant step in that direction,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said. “Elias Bonilla was the catalyst for several brazen public attacks by the Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas, which left almost a dozen of our residents seriously injured. He and MS-13 tried to intimidate others through fear and force, but my office’s message is clear: gang violence in our communities is unacceptable, and we put such criminals in front of judges and behind bars.”