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NEW YORK (AP) – A bereaved mother in New York, recognized by President Donald Trump in the State of the Union in her campaign against deadly violence against MS-13 gangs, was killed Friday at the memorial site of her murdered daughter.
Evelyn Rodriguez was touched around 4 pm in Brentwood, near where the body of her 16-year-old daughter, Kayla Cuevas, was found beaten and injured two years ago, police said. Cuevas' friend Nisa Mickens, 15, was also killed.
The community is the epicenter of the fight against MS-13 violence on Long Island.
Rodriguez and the driver, a parent of a person who lives near the memorial, were arguing over his placement, the police said. Rodriguez, 50, and another person were seen standing in the street and shouting at the SUV driver before the vehicle rushed and hit her.
News 12 Long Island aired a video of the argument but did not show that Rodriguez was touched.
The driver, who was not injured, remained at the scene and called 911, police said. They did not publish his name.
Trump said in a tweet: "My thoughts and prayers are with Evelyn Rodriguez tonight, with her family and friends. #RIPEvelyn."
Until now, there is no evidence of links with MS-13 or any indication that the crash was attributed to the gang, said a law enforcement official at the Associated Press. The grievor was not allowed to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP under the guise of anonymity.
The US representative, Peter King, RN, who had worked with Rodriguez on an advertising campaign, was on his way to a vigil at the memorial site when he learned that she had been touched. He said that it happened about an hour before the start of the service.
"It's a tragedy beyond belief," King said at the AP. "Everyone is in shock, what more could happen to a woman?"
Governor Andrew Cuomo praised Rodriguez's "tremendous courage" and ordered the state police to assist him in his investigation.
Suffolk district prosecutor Tim Sini, who was police commissioner when Cuevas and Mickens were killed, said Rodriguez was "one of the strongest people" he had ever met and had heart broken by his death.
"She was a fervent defender of her hometown of Brentwood and was fearless in her fight to end the MS-13 violence to make sure other parents did not have to." never endure the pain, "said Sini.
Rodriguez denounced the gang and the local school district after Cuevas and Mickens were attacked with machetes and baseball bats. Mickens 'body was found near a primary school on September 13, 2016. Cuevas' body was found the next day, a few hundred feet away.
The alleged killers of the girls, who were arrested along with about a dozen other suspected members of MS-13, face charges of murder that could result in the death penalty.
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, has been responsible for dozens of murders on Long Island since 2016. Trump has blamed the violence on lax immigration policies.
In January, Rodriguez joined Cuevas 'father, Freddy Cuevas and Mickens' parents in the state of the Union.
"My daughter, Kayla, was a beautiful girl," Rodriguez told the forum. "She had dreams and they took that away from her, it's not okay, and how these kids were murdered, tortured, it's unacceptable."
Prosecutors say Kayla was targeted because of ongoing conflicts with gang members at her school. They say that Nisa was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Rodriguez filed a $ 110 million lawsuit against the Brentwood School District last December, ignoring warnings that MS-13 members were threatening Kayla.
Rodriguez stated that the employees did not act when they were told that the girl was threatened. The lawsuit indicates that the intimidation lasted two years before the teenager was killed.
Rodriguez told a House subcommittee last year that residents lived in fear and were afraid to let their children play outside.
"The MS-13 gang is so unpredictable that you do not know who's who with them," Rodriguez said. "MS-13 is a new generation of murderers, they are children, children who kill children and, as they continue to grow, their techniques of recruiting helpless young people into their bad deeds increase."
Federal prosecutors estimate that MS-13 has thousands of members in the United States, mainly Central American immigrants.
He has a stronghold in Los Angeles, where he appeared in the 1980s as a neighborhood street gang, and is suspected of violence in cities and suburbs across the United States.
The deaths of Cuevas and Mickens have focused on what had already been a wave of gang violence on Long Island. MS-13 has been accused of more than two dozen murders across a broad band of the island since January 2016.
Last month, a member of MS-13 pleaded guilty to having participated in the brutal killing of four young men in the central district of Islip.
Josue Portillo, 17, confessed to planning the April 2017 murders with other MS-13 defendants because he said they thought the four were gang members, the prosecutor said. The victims were lured into a park and attacked with machetes, knives and clubs.
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Balsamo reported from Washington.
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Follow Sisak on https://twitter.com/mikesisak and Balsamo on https://twitter.com/mikebalsamo1
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