Grandview gunbattle injures one

GRANDVIEW - Multiple shots rang out at about 7 p.m. in Grandview last night, Wednesday, as two rival gangs reportedly exchanged gunfire in the 700 block of West Fifth Street and Crescent Drive.

Juan Zepeda, 27, was injured in the incident, but police say the injuries to his leg are minor-the bullet travelled up his leg and got lodged in his thigh. After receiving medical treatment, Zepeda is currently housed in the Grandview jail.

Police say it wasn't until after the incident broke out that the gang members got into vehicles and fled. At some point, police say Zepeda allegedly pointed a firearm at an innocent bystander in the area of West Fifth Street and Avenue H. The victim obtained a license plate and vehicle information and relayed the information to the police.

Police say they later found one of the suspect vehicles at a residence in the 300 block of Elm Street. After obtaining a search warrant, police say they seized the vehicle, a handgun and approximately a half-pound of marijuana. Police arrested two females who live at the residence.

During the exchange of gunfire, three homes in the area were hit with bullets. Police are still researching the total amount of rounds fired, but believe the total will be about 25.

Police are requesting the two women be charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and that Zepeda be charged with assault in the first degree.

It's not over yet, though.

"We're still looking for several other suspects and some of the victims have not come forward yet," said Det. Mitch Fairchild.

http://www.dailysunnews.com/ARCHIVES/Story.aspx/16072/rival-gangs-exchange-gunfire-in-grandview-one-wounded

Sunnyside drive-by nets three arrests

Sunnyside police were called to the 1100 block of Tacoma Avenue at 11 p.m. this past Saturday night after receiving a report of shots fired.

Witnesses told police a tan Ford Taurus left the scene after its occupants fired several times at a residence and the surrounding area. One man was injured in the shooting.

Officers went in pursuit of the vehicle and the driver led police on a chase that exceeded 100 mph and went as far east as Prosser before spikes were laid in the road and the vehicle was disabled.

Arrested in the vehicle were 29-year-old Anthony DeLeon of Prosser, 21-year-old Richard DeLeon of Prosser and Octavia Robledo, 23, of Grandview.

Anthony DeLeon will be charged with assault in the first degree and eluding. DeLeon and Robledo will be charged with first degree assault.

The victim, 19-year-old Ingacio Cardenas, was treated at a local hospital and then transported to Harborview. He has one gunshot wound to his lower torso.

Evidence was recovered at the scene, including nine .22 caliber shell casings. This case is still under investigation. Anyone with any information is encouraged to call Detective Jim Ortiz at 509-836-6200.

http://www.dailysunnews.com/ARCHIVES/Story.aspx/15956/assault-with-firearm-leads-to-three-arrests

Toppenish- two injured in shooting

TOPPENISH -- Two juvenile males were injured in a shooting Monday night in what police are calling a gang-related incident. Both victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Toppenish police said they responded to a report of a gunshot victim at Toppenish Community Hospital about 8:45 p.m.

One of the victims told police he was driving his vehicle out of a parking lot when someone shot at him from behind, striking him in the back. A passenger in the front seat was hit by flying glass and metal from the door. The driver was treated and released by the hospital a short time after he arrived.

Police described the suspect as a slender male of average height with a shaved head, wearing black clothing. He reportedly fled in a blue El Camino-type vehicle. The weapon appears to have been a rifle.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call Toppenish police at 509-865-4355.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2009/03/31/two-injured-in-toppenish-shooting

Toppenish- Brother and Sister arrested for homicides

YAKIMA -- A brother and sister have been charged with aggravated first-degree murder in what authorities describe as a gang-related double shooting in Toppenish earlier this month.

Isabel Sanchez, 21, of Wapato is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Yakima County Superior Court. Her brother, 23-year-old Anthony Sanchez of Buena, made his arraignment appearance on Monday.

Anthony Sanchez remains at the Yakima County jail on $5 million bail; his sister is being held on $1 million bail.

Estevan Silva Jr., 17, and Israel Diaz, 20, were killed in the March 5 shooting. Two others with them were not hit.

Toppenish police say Isabel Sanchez was driving when she and her brother spotted the group near Buena Way and drove to intercept them as they were taking a shortcut home. Anthony Sanchez opened fire on them after the sides exchanged gang-related comments, police said.

If convicted, the siblings could face the death penalty or life in prison. Prosecutors typically are required to decide on whether to seek capital punishment within 30 days.

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2009/03/24/brother-sister-charged-in-fatal-gang-shootings

Toppenish- Gang shooting leaves two dead

Gang shooting leaves two dead in Toppenish

Philip Ferolito
Yakima Herald-Republic

TOPPENISH, Wash. -- Yet another shooting has claimed the lives of two young victims as police scramble to put a lid on a growing gang problem in Yakima County.

Thursday night's shooting deaths of 17-year-old Estevan Silva Jr. and 20-year-old Israel Diac push to eight the number of homicides in the Yakima County so far this year. About half the deaths are gang-related.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the Valley were working together Friday to see if the shooting is connected to other recent gang shootings, including one earlier Thursday in Yakima, said Toppenish Police Capt. Curt Ruggles.

Silva and Diac were with two others near the intersection of Washington Avenue and Buena Way about 10:20 p.m. Thursday when they were gunned down by a rival gang member, police said.

A dark car with two people inside pulled up, gang affiliations were announced, and a passenger of the car opened fire, striking the two, police said.

The vehicle then fled west on nearby Track Road at a high rate of speed, police said.

Diac, who was shot in the torso, died at the scene. Silva was rushed to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. He died about 4:15 a.m. Friday, Yakima County Coroner Maury Rice said.

Monday autopsies will be conducted for both victims, he said.

Roughly five hours before the two were shot, a 28-year-old Yakima man was struck in the leg by a bullet when rival gang members shot at his Ford Expedition outside a convenience store at 16th Avenue and Tieton Drive in Yakima.

Now, Valley police are trying find out whether there's a connection.

"We're trying to help each other out," Ruggles said Friday.

Police are reviewing surveillance tapes from cameras at nearby buildings in hopes of identifying the suspects in the Toppenish shooting, Ruggles said.

The deaths come 11 days after a gang shooting left an innocent 16-year-old hospitalized in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle

Jose Salinas was shot in the face on Feb. 22 after peering out a bedroom window after hearing shots fired outside his home at the corner of Horschel and Hoffer roads west of Wapato.

The bullet broke his jaw and traveled down his spine and lodged near his kidneys, family said. He's now breathing with help from a ventilator.

Of the 18 homicides reported in Yakima County last year, police say half the deaths were teenagers.

Gangs are becoming more organized in the Valley, authorities have said, and police have formed a multiagency task force to tackle the problem.

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."

Sunnyside: BGL arrested in Juan Sosa murder

January 24, 2009 in Uncategorized

Sunnyside, WA- Sunnyside’s first murder of the year results in an arrest Wednesday in Granger. Oscar Torres, 26, of Sunnyside was taken into custody at a residence located in the 1800 block of Nelson Road in Granger. Torres was charged with the murder of Jesus Sosa which ocurred on January 4 at the AM/PM Mini Mart in Sunnyside. Charges include the murder and several accounts of assault.

Jesus Sosa, 22, of Sunnyside was shot near the gas pumps when a group of young males confronted each other outside the convenience store. Injured during the shooting were two other males, a 16 year old male from Schwana and Manuel Farias of Grandview. Farias had recently moved from Mattawa to Grandview.

Police believe this is a gang related incident that began in Mattawa earlier in the day. Sunnyside Police was assisted by Washington State Department of Corrections.

This case is still under investigation. If you have any information on the identity of this person or his whereabouts please call the Sunnyside Police.