Mount Vernon Shooter Gets 10 Years In Slaying Of Tarrytown Dad

TARRYTOWN, NY — A teen gunman who killed a Westchester father learned his fate on Thursday.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced on Friday that a Mount Vernon man was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old Sleepy Hollow father of two, Manuel Salazar.

"This senseless act of gun violence took away a father and husband leaving a family devastated," Rocah said in a statement on Friday, announcing the sentence. "We must be vigilant in our fight to keep guns out of the hands of people who use them for harm."

Emmanuel Valentin Perez, 21, pleaded guilty on Aug. 17 to manslaughter and felony assault. He will be subject to five years of post-release supervision.

On June 28, 2021, just after 9:3o p.m., Valentin Perez, who was 18 at the time, used a Lorcin pistol to shoot the victim once in the abdomen during a confrontation at Margotta Courts Park in Sleepy Hollow. The 32-year-old victim was taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he was pronounced dead. Perez’s gunshot also wounded a second victim, who was taken to the hospital, treated and released.

An investigation by the Sleepy Hollow Police Department, 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, used surveillance video, ballistics evidence and witness interviews to recover the loaded gun and identify the teen as the shooter. He was arrested outside of his Mount Vernon home on June 29, 2021.

"Imagine waking up the next day and telling your kids they will never be able to see, hear, touch, talk, or hug their dad again," Salazar's widow said, in a victim impact statement to the court."Manuel was the most loving husband.... Losing him has changed my life forever."