On the night of MAY SEVENTH, JUST AS THEY STEPPED OUTSIDE THE VIEW OF WORKING SECURITY CAMERAS, ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ AND LAZARO MARTINEZ WER -E STABBED. OFFICERS ARRIVED ONE MINUTE LATER TO FIND MARTINEZ BLEEDING OUT ON THE SIDEWALK. RODRIGUEZ, WHO WENT BY THE NICKNAME GORDO, WAS STUMBLING AROUND SAYING HE’D BEEN ROBBED. MARTINEZ SURVIVED, MAKING HIM A MAJOR WITNESS to the murder of his friend Gordo, who DIED JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT. POLICE later arrested A TEEN-AGER NICKNAMED “DIABLITO” WHO HAS LINKS TO THE CHOLOS 152 GANG. 4 THE NEW YORK TIMES HAS BEEN TELLING THE STORY OF EVERY MURDER IN THIS PART OF THE BRONX THIS YEAR. IN THIS CASE, FOOTAGE FROM SEVERAL SECURITY CAMERAS HELPED US PIECE TOGETHER WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT. AT FIRST THE VIDEOS DID NOT MAKE MUCH SENSE TO US. WE WATCHED THE TAPES OVER AND OVER AGAIN, AND THEY PROVIDED TANTALIZING LEADS: PEOPLE who must have seen the stabbing, or might know something more about what happened. FOR EXAMPLE, IN THIS MOMENT, GORDO ATTACKS AN UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN AND THREE OTHER PEOPLE IN A CROSSWALK, IGNITING THE BRAWL. IT SEEMS RANDOM. THEN, REPUTED MEMBERS OF THE CHOLO GANG run up the street and JOIN THE FRAY. ONE OF THEM, WE LEARNED, IS DIABLITO — 18-YEAR-OLD ALBERTO AQUINO SIMON. GORDO AND HIS FRIEND CHASE “Diablito” AND ANOTHER MAN. THEY FIGHT, THEN MOVE BEYOND THE REACH OF THE CAMERAS, INTO A HALO OF LIGHT. A MINUTE LATER MARTINEZ COLLAPSES AND GORDO REAPPEARS, CLUTCHING HIS SIDE. THE POLICE DID NOT KNOW IT, BUT HIS LIVER HAD BEEN PIERCED AND HE WAS BLEEDING internally. We wanted to figure out whether he MIGHT HAVE STILL HAD THE KNIFE IN HIS SIDE WHEN HE FIRST approached police. But this IS WHERE WE faced THE LIMITS OF SECURITY FOOTAGE IN CONFIRMING FACTS. DOES THIS MOMENT SHOW A PROTRUDING KNIFE? OR IS IT A TRICK OF THE LIGHT? GORDO still DID NOT SEEM TO KNOW HOW BADLY HE WAS HURT, and neither did police. They did not put him in an ambulance until 10 minutes after Martinez. He died a half-hour later in the hospital. THE MURDER WEAPON was never found.