State Police Arrest 19-Year-Old Haverhill Man in Connection with Saturday Night Haverhill Murder

Photographs of David Trongeau released in 2018 when he was reported missing.

A 19-year-old Haverhill man has been charged in Saturday night’s stabbing death of Jose Vasquez.

David Trongeau, who turns 20 next week, was arrested this afternoon by the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section. He faces arraignment tomorrow in Haverhill District Court, according to Carrie Kimball, spokeswoman for Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett.

Haverhill Police, Fire and EMS were dispatched around 10 p.m., to a Marble Street home, and found 26-year-old Vasquez suffering from apparent stab wounds. He was taken to Lawrence General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Sources said the latest violence is related to an ongoing gang war.

Trongeau has previously been identified in police reports as having gang ties. While still a juvenile, the former Consentino, Nettle and St. James student, was reported as having run away from a state Department of Youth Services program in Methuen he had been enrolled in. In reporting him missing, his family told WHAV, Trongeau was able to escape when he was brought to an area YMCA.

Vasquez, himself, was previously freed after being charged in connection with a double stabbing in 2018 in Lafayette Square.

Blodgett’s office said in a statement, “Investigators believe that this was not a random act and that there is no threat to the general public.”

In July 2018, Vasquez and his brother, Gilbert, both then living on High Street, were charged with the double stabbing of men from Methuen and Nashua, N.H. in a Lafayette Square alleyway. According to police, the brothers were said to have “a beef” with the Methuen man, who was stabbed in the abdomen. Charges against the brothers were dismissed after the victims failed to appear for a probable cause court hearing.

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