By:JOSEPH KELLARD
Police identified the suspects as Frank Beltran, 18, Dane Buchanan, 18, and Daniel Ortiz, 18, all of Long Beach; Juan Tavaras, 19, and Edwin Rodriguez, 19, both of Freeport, and Rogelio Martinez, 19, of Baldwin. They were arrested in Oceanside on April 7 at 1:20 a.m., and were charged with second-degree assault.
"Apparently there was some kind of a function or party going on at Trafalgar Boulevard in Island Park," Detective Sgt. John King of the Fourth Precinct told the Herald, "and a dispute began between our six subjects and these three victims over the purchase of beer or something along those lines.
"One of the defendants, I'm not sure which one, had a knife that was used to menace the victims before beating them," King added. "The three victims were beaten with bats across the chests and arms." The victims suffered contusions and lacerations, but refused medical treatment at the scene.
After the alleged assaults, the six subjects fled the scene in a black Cadillac Escalade. While the subjects were driving north on Austin Boulevard, police heading south to the crime scene passed them on Long Beach Road.
"Police were responding to the assault call and heard the notification," King explained. "The officers were heading southbound to the assault scene on Long Beach Road, and the Escalade that fit the description passed them heading northbound. So they turned around and followed them, and pulled them over in Oceanside on Long Beach Road, right by Mott Street."
Police said they recovered a baseball bat from the back seat of the vehicle.
"Apparently, a few of them admitted to being in the Latin Kings, but we assume they all are," King said. "They had tattoos and such. By their admission, they said they were in the Latin Kings. A few of them said no, but they're all Latin Kings."
In September 2003, an Oceanside man was beaten and robbed on Bayside Avenue by four reputed members of the gang. They were later convicted of the fatal shooting and stabbing of a man in Lynbrook, and of robbing a husband and wife at gunpoint in Rockville Centre in February 2004.
