Sentencing Handed Down in Sleepy Hollow Fatal Shooting Case That Killed Father of Two

A now 21-year-old Mount Vernon man will spend ten years in state prison following sentencing this week from a 2021 incident that claimed the life of a father of two.

Mount Vernon Man Sentenced In 2021 Sleepy Hollow Park Shooting

Manuel Salazar, a 32-year-old husband, and father of two, lost his life at Sleepy Hollow Park during the summer of 2021, and the suspect in the shooting has finally been sentenced.

Miriam E. Rocah, Westchester County District Attorney, has announced that Emmanuel Valentin Perez, now 21, but 18 at the time of the incident, will serve ten years in state prison for the fatal shooting of Manuel Salazar.

Valentin Perez entered into a guilty plea on August 17th of last year to two felony charges, Manslaughter in the First Degree and Assault in the Second Degree. Following the ten years prison time, Valentin Perez will be subject to five years of post-release supervision.

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June 2021 Incident Claims Life of Mount Vernon Man, Injures Another

Reports indicate that just after 9:30pm on June 28, 2021, Valentin Perez engaged in a confrontation with Salazar, and allegedly used a Lorcin pistol to shoot Salazar one time in the abdomen. A second victim was also wounded by the gunshot, and was taken to the hospital where they were treated and then released.

Salazar was transported to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla where he was pronounced dead.

The incident was said to have happened in Sleepy Hollow at Margotta Courts Park which is on Valley Street.

Following an investigation led by the Sleepy Hollow Police Department with support from several other local entities, an arrest was made just one day later outside Valentin Perez's Mount Vernon Home.

DA Rocah, with regard to this incident, shared the following statement:

This senseless act of gun violence took away a father and husband leaving a family devastated. We must be vigilant in our fight to keep guns out of the hands of people who use them for harm.