Posted on 05/19/2012 6:15:45 AM PDT by marktwain
WATSONVILLE — Charges won’t be filed in the stabbing death of Brandon Gil in March, because investigators have determined that the suspect acted in self-defense.
Watsonville Police Chief Manny Solano said Thursday that investigators determined that on March 31, after words were exchanged, Gil and another man, Ricardo Flores, attacked Frank Garcia first, outside El Miramar Restaurant and Bar on Main Street. Gil allegedly stabbed Frank Garcia in the upper body, and Garcia defended himself.
“(Garcia) responded in fear of his life,” Solano said, adding that “this was a beef within the gang.”
The three men are all associated with the same Norteno street gang, Solano said. They were all armed with knives during the fight, he said.
Solano said he told Gil’s family that charges wouldn’t be filed. Regarding how Gil’s family took the news, Solano said: “Some of it wasn’t a surprise. Some of it was hard to process…. I think they understand that their son was involved in risky behavior.”
"It's a tough process for them," said Watsonville Police Lt. Dave McCartney.
Detectives determined that Gil and Flores confronted Garcia because of a prior assault that Garcia had been involved with. As a result of this assault, Garcia was no longer accepted by the gang and was targeted by the gang for harassment and violence, Solano stated.
"We believe Frank Garcia has been removed from the area," Solano said. "It's pretty apparent he's not safe here, if he stays."
Garcia had ties with a prison-based criminal organization and had an association with the same northern street gang as Gil and Flores, Solano stated.
Gil had been a known gang member and was considered a high-risk youth. A makeshift memorial for Gil still stands on the sidewalk where he died, at East Lake Avenue and Brennan Street.
Then we must ban "criminal records."
The three men are all associated with the same Norteno street gang, Solano said. They were all armed with knives during the fight, he said.
Sounds like a hate crime to me! ;-)
You are welcome.
Any mention of which gang?
There is something about California that just results in gangs everywhere, and always has, going back to the 19th Century.
Here are just the major street gangs, and not an inclusive list, by a long chalk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_street_gangs
Here is a smaller scale list, just to indicate the scope of this insanity.
http://iestreetlife.aforumfree.com/f25-northern-california-gangs
Read the entire post; it's there. Don't even have to go to the link.
Yes and no. It describes them as being Nortenos, but that is a whole collective of northern Mexican and Latino California street gangs, possibly numbering in the thousands, under who knows how many local “brands”.
And the issue is further confused because they said it was a “prison gang”. But there is not a clean overlap between street gangs and prison gangs. Allies on the inside might be enemies on the outside.
California gangs are difficult to police up, because they tend to be decentralized organizations. There are many “chiefs” and “braves”, like in an Indian tribe, but no hierarchy and no overall leadership. A chief is only a chief because a few braves will hang out with him for a while. He has no real authority over them.
The federals, state and local police spend a heck of a lot of time figuring out who is doing what to whom with gangs.
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