Lincoln Gang Member Gets 30 Years in Prison for Role in Slaying of Police Officer.
A 21-year-old gang member was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison for his role in the “senseless and brutal murder” of Lincoln Police Officer Mario Herrera.
Orion J. Ross of Lincoln informed a fellow gang member, Felipe Vazquez, where a stolen firearm was stashed in the bedroom in which they were barricaded as police attempted to serve an arrest warrant for Vazquez for assault, according to the Nebraska U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Vazquez, 19, grabbed the gun and shot Herrera as Vazquez escaped through a broken window of a home near 33rd and Vine Streets in Lincoln. The officer, the married father of four kids, died two weeks later at a hospital.
U.S. District Judge John Gerrard ruled that the actions of Ross were part of an ongoing conspiracy by members of the No Name Demons gang to possess firearms and commit crimes involving violence and drugs.
Gang had other victims
Eleven other members of the No Name Demons gang were found guilty in federal court for their roles in a gang rape and a conspiracy to obtain firearms.
The judge, in sentencing Ross, said that the gang espoused “extreme violence” and a “code of silence,” and that there were many other victims of the gang’s violent acts. He called the slaying of Herrera “senseless and brutal.”
FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said that Ross “terrorized Lincoln neighborhoods” and while he didn’t pull the trigger, was “just as responsible for the killing of Officer Mario Herrera.”
“While no sentence will bring Officer Herrera back or end his family’s pain, the FBI, and our federal, local, and state partners in the Lincoln Safe Streets Gang Task Force, hope they can take some comfort in the fact this violent gang has been dismantled and its members are behind bars,“ Kowel said.
In May, Vazquez was sentenced in Lancaster County District Court to 70 years in prison to life for the first-degree murder of the officer. He was also sentenced to 59 to 86 years for attempted assault on a second officer, escape and four gun charges, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.
NCN 7/3/2023