Police reports reveal clues on shootings; Gang planned Machias killing

The shooting of a New York teenager in Machias in November was an ambushed killing involving members of two rival drug gangs, according to a police affidavit. In addition to four men believed to be out-of-state gang members, a local man is now also being charged in the shooting. Nathaniel Kerruish, 23, of East Machias was recently charged by indictment with robbery and felony murder in the death of 17-year-old Brandin Guerrero of Massapequa, N.Y.
The four others who have been arrested -- Jorge Pagan-Sanchez, 41, of Taunton, Mass., Nathanael Genao, 23, of New Bedford, Mass., Juan Ortiz, 27, of Concord, N.H., and Emanuel Ramos, 30, of Roxbury, Mass. -- are all being charged with felony murder. The five men were scheduled for a court appearance on January 19.
The affidavit filed by Maine State Police Detective Chad Lindsey for the arrest of Pagan-Sanchez provides more details about the shooting. According to the affidavit, in the early morning hours of November 4 residents on High Street and Court Street reported hearing up to seven or eight gunshots and then witnessing two vehicles, a silver sedan and a dark SUV, speeding away from the scene. Guerrero's body was found just before 8 a.m. the next morning on the front yard of a High Street home.
According to relatives of Guerrero and others involved, he and his brother allegedly had come to Maine to sell heroin and crack cocaine at the directive of their boss and were affiliated with the Bloods street gang out of New York City. Also according to the police affidavit, there was tension between Ramos and Guerrero because they worked for rival gangs. One person told a detective that Kerruish told her that if Guerrero showed up where Ramos was staying that Ramos would kill Guerrero. That person also stated that Ramos allegedly had cut off someone's finger recently for a debt.
Another person involved stated that Ramos carried a semi-automatic pistol and Ortiz carried two revolvers. According to the state police, the guns used to shoot Guerrero were a Glock 9mm and a Colt .357 revolver.
According to statements in the affidavit, the plan to rob Guerrero of his backpack to get his drugs was allegedly mapped out by Ortiz, Ramos, Genao and Pagan-Sanchez at a Beal Street home where Kerruish and his girlfriend lived. The plan allegedly called for Kerruish to pick up Guerrero and bring him to the cemetery on High Street under false pretenses, namely that he was meeting someone who owed him $150 that he would then use to buy heroin from Guerrero.
As Kerruish and Guerrero walked up High Street toward the cemetery shortly after midnight on November 4, Ortiz, Ramos, Genao and Pagan-Sanchez passed by them in two vehicles, which then stopped, according to statements in the affidavit. Ortiz allegedly got out and fired as Kerruish and Guerrero were running away, and Guerrero was hit once and limped and then shot again in the back. The men then removed Guerrero's backpack.
On November 19 Genao was arrested at his home in New Bedford, Mass., and Ortiz and Ramos were arrested in Texas by the Fort Worth Police Department. Pagan-Sanchez was arrested by police on December 3 after attempting to flee from his home in Taunton, Mass.