MS13 Boston Gang Member Convicted In Maverick Rival Shooting

BOSTON, MA — An MS-13 gang member who lived in Boston before he fled to New York was convicted today of shooting a rival and a bystander at the Maverick MBTA station, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.

After less than a day of deliberations, a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Rogelio Alvardo, 23, who lived in East Boston at the time of the shooting, on two counts of assault and battery by discharging a firearm and single counts of unlawfully possessing a firearm and unlawfully carrying a loaded firearm. Jurors acquitted Alvarado of an additional count of armed assault with intent to murder. He faces sentencing on Aug. 20.

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“Gun violence is the number one public safety threat facing Boston today,” Conley said. “If you pick up an illegal firearm, if you fire it in a public place, if you hit your target or a bystander or anyone else, we’re going to prosecute you. I want to thank the Boston and Transit police who responded to the scene and investigated the facts, the prosecution team who marshaled the evidence and the law for trial, the witnesses who stepped forward and testified to their observations, and the jurors who returned a fair and just verdict.”

During about three and a half days of trial, it came out that Alvarado, who relocated to Huntington, NY, after fleeing Boston had a gang-related conflict with a 29-year-old fellow passenger while traveling inbound on a Blue Line train on the afternoon of Jan. 19, 2016. The two men got off the train at Maverick Station.

Alvarado pulled a gun, sparking a physical fight during which Alvarado shot the victim twice at close range. The victim was struck twice in the back. A second man, age 42, exiting the train at about the time of the conflict was struck as well, suffering a graze wound to the front of his head. Both men were transported to hospitals and survived.

Pichardo introduced additional evidence that Alvarado fled the train station in a taxi and made his way back to New York. He was arrested by Huntington Police on July 12, 2017, after driving the wrong way down a roadway and forcing other motorists off the road.

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