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Read the press release here.

Police Blame Boozy Soccer Game For Williamsburg Murder After Match

By Gwynne Hogan | December 21, 2016 5:07pm
 A friend of Martinez' is raising funds for the family who'll have to pay funeral costs and hospital bills for the family.
A friend of Martinez' is raising funds for the family who'll have to pay funeral costs and hospital bills for the family.
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Courtesy of Francisco Simon

WILLIAMSBURG — Police blamed a late night murder outside of a school following a soccer game inside on free-flowing booze being sold during the match, which the head of the league roundly denied.

During a series of games hosted by the North and Central Americans Soccer League on Dec. 10 inside the public high school Juan Morel Campos Secondary School, beer and liquor were being served, according to Deputy Inspector William Gardner, head of Williamsburg's 90th Precinct. 

"That's definitely against the rules," Gardner said. "It's a nonprofit and that's how they're able to use the school."

Gardner has since forced the league to cancel a January game they'd scheduled at the school, he said.

"People get liquored up and some stupid argument turns into, 'You're dead,'" he said.

Workers at the school declined to comment and a spokesman for the Department of Education didn't respond to a request for comment immediately.

The crackdown on North and Central Americans Soccer League comes after a fight between players of opposing teams escalated outside the school and two brothers were stabbed just after midnight Dec. 11.

Delvin Martinez, 31, died soon after, while his brother Oscar Martinez, 29, was critically injured in the stabbing, authorities said. Oscar has since recovered and was recently released from the hospital.

But the league's organizer Ronaldo Pinzon, 34, staunchly denied police claims that there'd been booze for sale inside the school.

"It's a lie. There isn't any alcohol inside," Pinzon, said in Spanish. "I don't know how they got to that conclusion."

friend and fellow soccer player who's collecting funds for the Martinez family to pay for Oscar's medical bills and Delvin's funeral, also said he'd never seen alcohol sold at the league's games, though he wasn't there the night of the attack.

"They don't sell beer there but some people come drunk to [the] game, I won't deny that," Fernando Simon said.

The Dec. 10 games had gone like any normal night, Pinzon said. No fights had erupted on the field, though it's been known to happen. He always comes down hard on players who let their emotions get the better of them, he said.

"If you fight on the field you get kicked out," Pinzon said. "You can't play in the league."

At the time of the stabbing outside the school, Pinzon had just sent the two security guards home after everyone left the facility at midnight.

He was still inside the gym tidying up, so he said he didn't witness the fight that led up to the stabbing outside, though, like many within the tight-knit soccer league, he knew from witnesses who the player who stabbed the Martinez brothers was.

The culprit has played with the league for several years, and didn't have disciplinary issues this year, though in the past he'd been cited for pushing and small fights; nothing of this magnitude, Pinzon said.

"I hope that this person will be arrested [soon]," he said. "I'm cooperating with the authorities."

Police said they have identified a suspect, though they did not confirm an identity.

As of Wednesday, a week and a half after the incident, still no arrests had been made in the deadly stabbing, which had many players on edge, Simon said.

"The whole community is scared to talk."