The ambush attack of a Wake County, North Carolina sheriff's deputy at a child's birthday party in February was a gang hit, a prosecutor told the court Monday.
Assistant District Attorney Katie Pomeroy spoke during a plea hearing for one of the four men charged in the beating at the Panther Branch Community Center at 10900 Ten-Ten Road in Garner, according to WRAL-TV.
Gabriel Moreno, who along with the other three men were all "validated gang members," pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.
"This is a gang assault on a law enforcement officer and should be punished accordingly," Pomeroy said.
Miguel Angel Moreno, Remi Nambo and Delfino Alejo each faced charges of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and malicious assault in secret.
The deputy, whose identity is being kept secret due to his work undercover, was attending a birthday party when Gabriel Moreno asked to speak to him outside.
Officials said the three other men joined in jumping on the deputy, striking him in the head and kicking him as he lay on the ground
The deputy suffered six broken bones, cuts and bruises and kidney damage and was out of work for several weeks.
The men screamed at the deputy and called him a "pig," and while Moreno claims it was a "spontaneous decision" to attack the law enforcement, Judge Graham A. Shirley disagreed.
"I have a hard time finding this is a spontaneous act," he said during the hearing.
Moreno was sentenced to 33 to 52 months in jail.
