A Timeline of Recent Gang-Related Events in Northern Virginia
May 2003: Attorney General Jerry Kilgore creates the Attorney General's Anti-Gang Task Force, which produces legislation that strengthens Virginia's anti-gang laws.
May 2004: In Herndon, Va., there is a gang slaying. A week later, a 16-year-old Fairfax boy has several of his fingers cut off in a gang machete attack.
August 2004: A member of MS-13 is executed by suspected gang members in a townhouse in Irongate neighborhood in Manassas, Virginia.
February 2005: A 14-year-old boy is beaten with baseball bats and stabbed by four teens who are members of a rival gang in Irongate neighborhood in Manassas, Virginia.
March 27-31: Operation Community Shield, which was launched nationwide in February 2005, leads to the detention of 11 gang members in northern Virginia who are scheduled to face deportion for illegal immigration.
April 2, 2005: A 14-year-old boy is beaten with baseball bats and stabbed outside of Manassas Mall. Police say that the victim was injured in a rival gang attack, as the victim was associated with South Side Locos gang.
April 8, 2005: A leader of a Latino Street gang - Vatos Locos - which killed four people and mutilated countless others in an attempt to eliminate rivals, is sentenced to 151 years in prison.