Yakima innocent shooting victim not expected to survive

YAKIMA, Wash. -- They'd heard gunshots in their neighborhood before. But never as loud as what they heard late Tuesday night.

The friends remember talking inside their small rental in the 700 block of North Naches Avenue before it happened.

Kyle Flerchinger, a 20-year-old from Idaho, stepped outside for a smoke. His girlfriend followed. Then came the gunfire.

"You never think something like this is going to happen so close, to somebody you know, especially in your backyard," said Joyce Speaks, who rents the small house with a neat, fenced-in backyard.

A bullet that strayed from a shooting a block away hit the back of Flerchinger's neck. Authorities don't expect him to survive.

Flerchinger remained on life support Wednesday evening at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. His mother flew in from Idaho to be with him. His friends are saying their good-byes at the hospital, Speaks said.

If he dies, he'll become the ninth homicide victim in Yakima County this year, the sixth within Yakima city limits. Two of the victims were considered unintended targets.

No arrests have been made in Tuesday's shooting.

Another man, identified by police as 21-year-old Arturo Galvez, was shot near the intersection of Sixth and G streets, where the confrontation occurred.

Yakima police Lt. Mike Merryman said Galvez, who may have gang ties, suffered at least two gunshot wounds in his back. Galvez was flown Tuesday night to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and is expected to survive.

Flerchinger's friends say he and his girlfriend, Amanda Pennington, had been crashing for the past two months with Speaks and her family.

Speaks rents the home with her fiancé and four young children.

Flerchinger met his girlfriend three years ago through JobCorps. They had been living, until recently, in Orofino, Idaho, with his mother. The couple was in Yakima visiting Pennington's family and planned to return to Idaho in May.

"He was a really good kid, became a really good friend," Speaks said. "He was good with my kids."

Detectives are still investigating the shooting. Initial reports from Galvez's brother indicate that his sibling was confronted by someone whom he described as a gang member.

Flerchinger isn't the city's first innocent shooting victim. In the past month or so, authorities say, two other men were shot dead by bullets intended for somebody else.

On Feb. 27, James Kilby, 29, of Union Gap died at a local hospital after he was shot in a car outside a Yakima grocery store. Authorities believe a friend who had called Kilby for a ride home was the intended target.

A week later, David R. Duarte, 40, of Yakima was shot dead while riding in his nephew's car. Police say Duarte was not involved in gangs but his nephew belongs to one.

In October, just a few blocks from where Tuesday's shooting happened, another man was shot to death during a Halloween party. Authorities say Jason Baldoz, 34, was not a gang member, but the shooter is.

Arrests have been made in all three of those cases.

The tally of innocent people wounded in Yakima shootings in the past year includes: a 20-year-old farm
worker who made the mis-take of wearing red clothing; a 62-year-old man selling ice
cream bars from his bicycle cart; a 23-year-old Michigan woman sitting on a porch; and a 13-year-old girl doing homework in her bedroom.


* Melissa Sánchez can be reached at 509-577-7675 or msanchez@yakimaherald.com.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2010/03/31/shooting-victim-hospitalized-in-critical-condition

Yakima- innocent shooting victim from Idaho dies

YAKIMA, Wash. — The Idaho man who was struck by a stray bullet Tuesday night in Yakima died early this morning after being taken off life support.

Yakima County Coroner Jack Hawkins said an autopsy on Kyle Flerchinger’s body may be scheduled as early as this afternoon. Several of his organs were able to be recovered for donation, Hawkins said.

Flerchinger, 20, becomes the ninth homicide victim in Yakima Couinty this yaar and the second innocent person to be shot and killed.

He had been at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital since Tuesday night when he was hit by gunfire while smoking a cigarette. He was standing in the backyard of a home where he had been staying, in the 700 block of North Naches Avenue.

Police say a single bullet hit Flerchinger in the back of the neck from about a block away, near the intersection of Sixth and G Streets.

The gunfire may have been gang-related. Police said the bullet was intended for a 21-year-old man, who was hit at least twice in the back. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, but he is expected to recover, police say.

Police are still investigating. Detectives have not announced any arrests or released any suspect information.

— Mark Morey

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2010/04/02/innocent-shooting-victim-from-idaho-dies

Wapato- jury out on shooting that hurt innocent teen

YAKIMA, Wash. — Jurors will resume deliberations this morning in the trial of a man accused of wounding an innocent teen during a gang-related shooting outside of Wapato.

The victim, Jose Salinas, then 16, continues to undergo medical treatment in Seattle from the injuries he received when the bullet slammed into his jaw, traveled down his spine and lodged near his kidneys.

Defendant Joshua Perez, 23, is charged in Yakima County Superior Court with two counts of first-degree assault and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm. The trial began Dec. 14.

The incident occurred Feb. 21 on Horschel and Hoffer roads outside Wapato.

Investigators said the shooting followed a confrontation between gang rivals as one side was holding a birthday party for a young girl. Salinas lived in a nearby house, and Perez had lived at his grandmother's house on Horschel Road for several years, authorities said.

There were no eyewitnesses who pointed to Perez as the one who shot Salinas. Authorities identified Perez as the suspect in part because of a statement by a woman attending the birthday party, Mayra Corona, who was also the victim named in the first assault count.

Another witness testified that Corona came into the house where the party was being held soon after the confrontation and said, "That scrap, Josh Perez, shot me."

"Scrap" is a derogatory term used by red-wearing gang members -- historically known in California's Hispanic gang world as Nortenos -- to refer to their blue-wearing rivals, known as Surenos.

Perez's gang-related tattoos include the word "Sureno" above his left eyebrow.

As it turned out, Corona was not wounded, and she had to be brought into court under a material witness warrant.

Prosecution witnesses testified that Corona, known to have gang ties, had asked Perez to identify himself as he and several others were walking along the road in front of the house where the party was taking place.

The first round of shots soon followed in front of the house.

Salinas' brother, Sergio, testified that a second round of gunfire came from the doorway of Perez's grandmother's home. One round struck Jose Salinas, who was inside his house.

Perez's DNA was found on a beer can tossed alongside the road, and several .357-caliber casings and live rounds were found in the front yard of the Perez home.

While acknowledging that Corona did not come across as a star witness, deputy prosecutor David Soukup asked the jury to consider the state's entire case in order to reach a guilty verdict.

"It's a sequence of events that you can see makes sense, especially in the context of the gang," he said in his closing argument.

Defense attorney Amanda Stevens blasted the prosecution's entire case as "hearsay statements, allegations and speculations." She suggested to the jury that detectives had settled for the "quick and convenient" suspect rather than ruling out other possibilities.

She called Perez's sister, Tasha Perez, to testify that she was at the house with her grandmother and other relatives, but not her brother, when the shooting broke out.

Among other points, she questioned whether Sergio Salinas could have seen the muzzle flashes he described as coming from the doorway of the Perez home.

"Or is he wanting justice for his brother, just as any brother would?" she said.

Perez did not testify.



* Mark Morey can be reached at 509-577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2009/12/21/jury-out-on-shooting-that-hurt-innocent-teen

Outlook- drive by claims innocent bystander

At approximately 6:30 p.m. yesterday (Sunday) the Yakima County Sheriff's Office was alerted to a drive-by shooting in the 10 block of Second Street in Outlook.
Deputies, assisted by the Sunnyside and Granger police departments, were told a white Chevrolet Blazer pulled up across the street from the targeted residence, where a family gathering was underway.
Children and family members were inside the home when a Hispanic male allegedly fired several shots at the residence.
A man next door to the home targeted by the suspects was outside at another family gathering at the time of the incident. He was struck by a bullet in the top of the head. The suspect vehicle quickly left the scene.
Deputies believe the intended victim was a guest at the original target home. That individual left the family gathering prior to law enforcement arriving at the scene.
The injured man was taken to Sunnyside Community Hospital and his wound does not appear to be life threatening.
The victim was, according to deputies, a by-stander with no gang affiliations.
Anyone with information regarding the incident can call the Yakima County Sheriff's Office at 509-574-2500.

http://www.dailysunnews.com/ArcStoryPage.asp?Database=Story&StoryID=16384

Wapato: Gang violence ensnares innocent Wapato teen

(Copyright (c) 2009 Yakima Herald-Republic)

WAPATO -- Trouble was the last thing Manuel Gomez was looking for as he celebrated his daughter's 11th birthday this weekend.

He'd left the gang life more than three years ago, earned a GED and is three years into college, but his old gang ties continue to haunt him.

And because of that, an innocent 16-year-old neighbor remains hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the face.

"I'm really sorry for the family," Gomez said. "I really feel bad for the family."

Gunfire isn't unusual in a neighborhood just outside Wapato where graffiti-tattered bungalows dot the area. But neighbors say it's the first time a bystander was caught in the cross hairs of gang violence.

Gomez said nearly a dozen children and their parents -- some of them with gang ties -- had gathered Saturday at his singlewide trailer on Horschel Road for the party when a handful of gang members living down the street showed up.

What followed has become an all too familiar scenario in the Yakima Valley: Words were exchanged. Shots were fired.

The mother of Gomez's children, Veronica Ortega, ordered all the children to the back of the house.

"I told them to go to their room and stay down," she said.

A handful of men at the party immediately ran outside, Gomez said.

"They told them to drop the guns and fight like a man," he said. "They wouldn't."

The melee then moved down the street, where more shots were fired.

Sergio Salinas, 18, who lives four doors down, said he heard arguing and gunshots when he looked out his bedroom window. He told his curious 11-year-old sister to go into the other room, away from the disturbance.

"They were arguing and all of a sudden they started shooting," he said, standing outside of his home Monday.

As he dialed 9-1-1, his 16-year-old brother, Jose Salinas, peered out the window, and a stray bullet smashed into his face.

His mother pressed a towel over the wound, which was gushing with blood, Salinas said.

In critical condition, the teen was rushed to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, where he's since been upgraded to serious condition.

He's breathing with the help of a ventilator.

Sergio Salinas said doctors told him the bullet broke his brother's jaw, traveled down his spine and may have lodged near his kidney.

Sergio Salinas said neither he nor his brother have any ties to gangs.

Police described Jose Salinas as "an innocent victim of the senseless violence."

Five people were released after being questioned at the scene, Stew Graham, the Yakima County Sheriff's Office's chief of detectives, said Monday.

There aren't any leads on an arrest, but investigators will continue to question people in the area, he said.

Sergio Salinas said his family is tired of the problems that continue to spew from an apparent gang house on Hoffer Road and adjacent to theirs in the 100 block of Horschel Road.

"They always get into arguments," he said. "Last time they got into an argument with a girl and almost ran her over."

Gomez said his family knows the victim's family and feels bad about the shooting.

"I never knew that kid to start trouble or anything," Gomez said. "It should have never happened to him."

But it's not the first run-in he's had with those gang members.

"They've already been shooting at my house," he said sitting in his living room Monday morning, explaining that he knows one of them. "These guys know I used to be in gangs."

His three children, which include another daughter, 6, and a 5-year-old son, were lying on the living room floor under blankets Monday morning watching cartoons. There was no school.

"I now have them sleeping in the living room because I was scared of having them sleep in their bedroom," he said.

He wasn't sure if his house was hit with a bullet Saturday night.

His son crawled from beneath the blankets, walked to the living room window and pulled the drapes back. "Right here, see," he said pointing to a gunshot hole in the window.

"I have to teach them if they hear shooting to just stay down," he said. "I feel bad that I have to teach them that."

Gomez, 27, grew up in the area, dropped out of high school and joined a gang. But he left gang life more than three years ago, and earned his GED and is in his third year of college, where he's seeking a degree in social work.

He recently went to Olympia to talk to lawmakers during a student leadership conference about gangs. As he spoke, his mother flipped through pictures of him in Olympia at the conference with Gov. Chris Gregoire.

"I do regret making bad choices," Gomez said. "I'm trying to leave that behind now. I'm trying to grow up. It haunts me, you know."

His only fear now is that this problem may not go away anytime soon.

"I'm not looking for any retaliation or anything," he said. "I just want it to stop."