Son didn't answer his dad's calls. He was found shot dead on the front yard, cops say

Emilio Sanchez Maldonado didn't answer his phone early Tuesday, so his father drove back home from work to check on him.

Jose Antonio Sanchez found his 17-year-old son shot to death behind a bush on his front yard at about 3:30 a.m., according to CBS New York.

“He went to pick [Maldonado] up and his hands and chest were covered in blood,” said 17-year-old Adonay Cruz, nephew of Sanchez and his translator for a Newsday interview.

It was supposed to be Maldonado's first day working at a nearby bakery in Long Island, New York, with his father, CBS reported.

Police told ABC7 that the teen was found next to his bike and a fence riddled with bullet holes, suggesting someone shot Maldonado as he was riding his bike. Landlord Ana Benavides said she heard a loud sound at around 11:30 p.m. — but brushed it off as fireworks.

“Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop,” she told Newsday, adding that she didn't hear anything else. “That was it.”

Then Sanchez came frantically ringing her doorbell at around 3:30 a.m.

"He was running around like crazy," Benavides told ABC7. "He was like, 'My son, my son!' But I didn't know what he was talking about. And I was like, 'Can you calm down and tell me what happened?' He's like, 'My son's dead.' And then I walked out and saw him lying there on his bike."

Maldonado was declared dead at the scene, according to Newsday. Police haven't revealed what parts of his body were shot.

The boy's father has an idea of who killed his son: MS-13, which the FBI describes as a “transnational criminal organization."

Sanchez said Maldonado, who came here from El Salvador four years ago, was a likable person.

"I spoke with him all the time," he told ABC7. "I would tell him, if you have problems with someone, tell me. And he would always say, 'No I don't have problems with anyone.'"

In her interview with CBS, Benavides said that Maldonado's father suspects that the teen was targeted for refusing to join the gang. As an investigation continues, the landlord said she is now fearing for the safety of her family as the suspects remain at large.

“Knowing that they’re still out there," she said, "it just gives me a feeling that I don’t even want to come home sometimes."