THE grieving mother of a young girl killed by MS-13 gang members in New York was fatally struck by a car while preparing for a candlelight vigil at her daughter’s memorial.

Evelyn Rodriguez was struck and killed by a vehicle on Friday afternoon (local time), two years to the day her daughter’s body was found in a wooded area off the same block, according to police, the New York Postreported.

Ms Rodriguez had previously attended US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address to shed light on the brutal slaying of her daughter, 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas.

Mr Trump tweeted his condolences later that day.

Rodriguez, 50, was on Ray Court, near where the remains of Kayla and her best friend Nisa Mickens, 15, were found.

The two had been beaten with baseball bats and hacked with a machete by MS-13 gang members.

The mother was preparing for the vigil when she and a woman driving a white 2016 Nissan Rogue got into a heated altercation over the memorial for the two girls, which had been dismantled in front of a house on the block.

The woman was a relative of someone who lived at the home, according to police.

In video footage posted online, Ms Rodriguez and a man can be seen confronting the driver.

That’s when the SUV driver accelerated and fatally struck Ms Rodriguez, police said.

Ms Rodriguez was rushed to Southside Hospital, where she died.

The driver remained on the scene and called 911.

She was not arrested on Friday night, but Suffolk County Police said that its homicide squad was investigating the incident.

Ms Rodriguez was a fierce advocate in the crusade to eradicate gangs. She urged schools to do more to combat gang-related violence, a pervasive problem on Long Island, where MS-13 has been responsible for at least 25 murders since 2016.

She was placed in the national spotlight last January when she attended US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address.

“I just want what’s right to be done,” Ms Rodriguez had told The New York Times in advance of the event.

“Everybody should put their political agenda aside and think about what’s going on in our country.”