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County police have arrested three suspected members of the MS-13 gang for allegedly assaulting several area residents last month in what appears to be a hate crime, according to a Montgomery County Police press release.

Police say Cinder Tobar-Campos, 23, of the 1200 block of Knoll Mist Lane in Montgomery Village; William Alexander Mendoza, 30, of the 7300 block of 23rd Avenue in Hyattsville; and Felix Arevalo Cantarero, 24, of the 3400 block of Farthing Drive in Wheaton were each charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault, second-degree assault, two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, conspiracy to commit second-degree assault and three counts of committing a crime by assaulting the victim because of their sexual orientation.

Police believe all three are members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a street gang with ties to El Salvador.

At about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 25, police say three men pulled up in a green vehicle in the 2600 block of Weisman Road in Wheaton, where a 30-year-old Wheaton woman, a 24-year-old Silver Spring man and a 24-year-old Silver Spring woman were walking. Police say the men got out of the vehicle and began throwing rocks and bottles at the three passersby, calling them "faggots" and "lesbians." The 30-year-old woman was seriously injured when a rock hit her on the forehead, and the other two victims received minor injuries from the flying debris, according to police. Police say one of the attackers brandished a knife, while another got out a stick or tire iron to threaten passers-by.

The 30-year-old woman was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police said. She has since been treated and released and is recovering from her injuries at home, police say.

Police aren't sure if the suspects and victims knew each other, but police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks said they all may have been patrons at Umberto's Restaurant earlier in the night Oct. 25. Umberto's is a Mexican restaurant at 11230 Grandview Ave. in downtown Wheaton that sometimes serves as a nightclub.

In the days that followed the attack, police say detectives believed they knew who two of the suspects were. They found Tobar-Campos and Mendoza Oct. 28 at Umberto's, according to the release. Tobar-Campos was arrested at the restaurant on an unrelated criminal warrant, which Starks declined to comment on, and Mendoza was arrested in connection with the hate crime and charged later that day, police say.

Cantarero was also identified as a suspect, and police obtained an arrest warrant for him, according to the release. Police say they found him at a friend's house in Price George's County on Nov. 6. All three are being held without bond at the Montgomery County Detention Center.

According to online court records, Mendoza has a pending burglary charge in Prince George's County; no charges were listed for Tobar-Campos or Cantarero. None of the suspects have defense attorneys listed yet, according to online court records.

To capture the three, police said they used a new technology that identifies a person through a fingerprint within minutes. When a fingerprint is scanned, it is electronically matched through a regional arrest database and sometimes draws up a picture. County police purchased several of the fingerprint devices through a Federal Urban Area Security Initiative from the Department of Homeland Security, and police say they devices were successfully used in this case.