By Aaron C. Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A 28-year-old man who was killed Friday in the Langley Park area was shot execution-style against a wall bearing graffiti markings of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, said his family and two Prince George's County police sources.

John Realpe Montoya of Hyattsville was found slumped against the wall, as if he had been kneeling, with several gunshot wounds in the back of the head, his family and the sources said.

Mara Salvatrucha markings are spray-painted on the wall and on a nearby tree. However, police say the graffiti are not new, and they have not established a motive or determined whether the killing was gang-related.

Montoya was found adjacent to a wooded area behind the Marylander Condominiums in the 7900 block of Riggs Road, less than two blocks from where he lived with his father, Isidorer Castro.

"I don't know what to say," Castro said. "He was a good guy. He was my right hand in all ways."

Castro said he last saw Montoya, a carpenter, Thursday night. The next afternoon, police knocked on his townhouse door and showed him a photo of his dead son, he said.

Castro said officers told him that Montoya had been shot three times in the back of the head. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, confirmed that Montoya had been shot in the head at close range and from behind. A police department news release said Montoya died at the scene from gunshot wounds to the upper body.

The wooded area is a known gathering place for gang members, said Maj. Kevin Davis, commander of the 1st Police District. The graffiti on the wall appear to be partially covered by other spray paint.

Davis declined to comment on the investigation but said officers have previously cleared graffiti from that area. The district has an aggressive anti-graffiti program, he said, because the paint can be more than an eyesore. Graffiti from gangs in one area can connote tagging wars that foreshadow violence, Davis said.

Police have "conducted enforcement efforts there" against gangs, he said. "Obviously, it's in need of additional attention, and it will get it."

Although police have not linked Montoya's death to MS-13, the gang -- made up primarily of Salvadoran and other Central American immigrants -- remains active in the Langley Park area, police said.

Since 2005, about 30 MS-13 members have been charged with racketeering. More than half have pleaded guilty to that or other related charges under a gang crackdown in the Maryland suburbs.

One of the sources said Montoya did not have obvious gang tattoos. Montoya, who police said Monday was 29 years old, was 28 when he was slain, according to his parents and court records. In 2002, he was given probation for a theft in Montgomery County.

Reached yesterday at a funeral home, Montoya's mother said she did not know who would want to hurt her son. "He called me every day," Maria Montoya Castro said. "I am brokenhearted."