Erik Antonio Hernandez Pineda, 27, recently of Washington D.C., has been sentenced for illegally possessing and discharging a pistol twice within the District during September 2023 and for using the firearm to persistently terrorise his wife.
Hernandez Pineda, who is a citizen of El Salvador and an alleged associate of the multinational gang Calle 18, or 18th Street, is in the United States unlawfully and knew that as a non-citizen, it was illegal for him to possess a firearm. At the time of the charged possession, he was also subject to a domestic violence protective order barring him from possessing a firearm.
Hernandez Pineda, aka ‘Lucky’, pleaded guilty on June 3, 2024, to possession of a firearm by a noncitizen unlawfully present in the United States. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden ordered him to serve three years of supervised release. Hernandez Pineda faces deportation following his prison term.
According to court documents, Hernandez Pineda purchased a 9mm Springfield XD firearm on January 20, 2023. An FBI investigation into the 18th Street gang began focusing on Hernandez Pineda when investigators learned he had purchased the charged firearm from an 18th Street gang member.
Specifically, the pistol had been used in a shooting on January 11, 2023, on a Washington, D.C. Metrobus where two children (aged 6 and 9 at the time) were shot as bystanders after an altercation broke out between two individuals.
A review of a phone recovered from the 18th Street gang member eventually linked the sale of the gun to Hernandez Pineda. On September 18, 2023, Hernandez Pineda recorded a video of himself shooting the pistol into the air. At 1:37 a.m., the MPD received a ShotSpotter alert at the same minute this video was recorded in the vicinity of Hernandez Pineda’s residence. MPD recovered two 9mm shell casings nearby.
These were entered into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) and yielded a lead to the January 11, 2023, Metrobus shooting. On September 24, 2023, at about 6:48 p.m., MPD received another ShotSpotter alert from the area near Hernandez Pineda’s residence. Officers responded and recovered one 9mm shell casing in the alley behind the building.
Between these two shootings, on September 20, 2023, Hernandez Pineda pleaded not guilty to domestic violence charges in Alexandria, Virginia, but was admitted to a diversionary program that granted him a two-year probationary term to comply with the conditions of the program. This plea also included a final order of protection that barred him from possessing a firearm and required him to sign an acknowledgement of that fact.
On December 8, 2023, the FBI executed a search warrant at Hernandez Pineda’s residence and recovered three live 9mm rounds from a drawer. Law enforcement also recovered his cell phone. Hernandez Pineda admitted to possessing the Springfield XD 9mm pistol.
Law enforcement reviewed Hernandez Pineda’s phone after his arrest and learned that not only did he discharge this firearm twice, but he also used it as part of his persistent harassment and intimidation of his wife following his arrest on May 17, 2023, for alleged domestic violence and assault.
