Manuel Salazar, a 32-year-old resident of Sleepy Hollow, was shot and killed on the evening of June 28, 2021. At about 9:30 p.m. he was at Margotta Courts Park when a confrontation occurred and another man shot him once in the abdomen. Salazar was taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he was pronounced dead. A second person was also wounded in the same incident and treated at the hospital before being released.

The Sleepy Hollow Police Department led the investigation with assistance from the Tarrytown Police Department, the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, and the Greenburgh Drug and Alcohol Task Force. Investigators used surveillance video, ballistics and witness interviews and identified a suspect; on June 29, 2021, 18-year-old Emmanuel Valentin Perez of Mount Vernon was arrested outside his home. Perez was later indicted on multiple felony charges related to the shooting.

If anyone was at Margotta Courts Park that night or has information about the confrontation, please come forward.