Shortly before 11:30 p.m., Guzman-Feliz noticed four vehicles and began to run. Gang members from the Trinitarios subset known as "Los Sures" had mistaken him for a member of the rival "Sunset" gang. They chased him for several blocks through the Belmont streets until he ducked into a bodega at Bathgate Avenue and East 183rd Street. The store owner, unsure of what was happening, initially hesitated before letting Junior behind the counter. It wasn't enough. The attackers dragged him out and stabbed him with knives and machetes on the sidewalk. Guzman-Feliz stumbled back into the store, then out again, running east on 183rd Street toward St. Barnabas Hospital, just one block away. Cell phone footage from an upper floor showed him collapse on a step at the hospital's security booth. Witnesses who recognized him screamed and pressed cloths to his wounds, but he died within minutes. Bronx County District Attorney Darcel Clark later confirmed what his family already knew: Junior had no ties to any gang.

The killing might have passed as another act of street violence in a city that had seen too many. Instead, graphic surveillance and cell phone video began circulating online, and the response was immediate and visceral. The hashtag #JusticeForJunior went viral on Twitter and Instagram. Police tip lines were flooded with calls from witnesses and strangers identifying suspects. Officers' social media posts were shared and viewed over 100,000 times. The outrage was not abstract -- it was rooted in the specific horror of watching a child run for his life and fail to reach safety. Fourteen suspects, all Trinitarios members between the ages of 18 and 29, were eventually arrested. The bodega owner who had witnessed the attack told MTV that his mother suffered a heart attack after viewing the security footage and died. He himself sought psychological therapy.

Nearly a year after the killing, five defendants -- Jonaiki Martinez-Estrella, Manuel Rivera, Elvin Garcia, Jose Muniz, and Antonio Rodriguez Hernandez -- were convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, gang assault, and conspiracy. The first-degree conviction acknowledged that Guzman-Feliz had been tortured before his death. Martinez-Estrella, whom officers identified as having delivered the fatal blow, was sentenced to life in prison, though his first-degree murder conviction was later vacated for lack of evidence. Other defendants received sentences ranging from 12 years to life. Four suspects held at Rikers Island received death threats from fellow inmates, including from other Trinitarios members, and had to be segregated for their own protection. In December 2018, one of the detained suspects was slashed in the face by a rival gang member while awaiting trial.

Thousands attended Guzman-Feliz's funeral at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the Bronx. His pallbearers wore Yankees jerseys. He was buried at Saint Raymond's Cemetery. After his death, the NYPD established a scholarship in his name for young people interested in law enforcement -- the career Junior had dreamed about but would never pursue. In February 2019, on his mother Leandra Feliz's birthday, the corner of Bathgate Avenue and 183rd Street was ceremonially renamed Lesandro Junior Guzman-Feliz Way. The memorial that now marks the site is modest: flowers, candles, and photographs at the spot where a boy who wanted to protect people was killed by people who did not know who he was.