Police: Several Gang Murders and Shootings in Seaside Solved

Police said they have solved two murders and three shootings that have happened in the past few years on the Monterey Peninsula. At a news conference on Thursday, police announced the arrest Francisco Chacala Valdez, Juan Hernandez Delgado and Christian Vengas Cruz.

Officers from the Peninsula Regional Violence and Narcotics team helped to investigate these cases. Police said that they were able to solve these two murders and three shootings in large part to community support and video surveillance.

Though they have arrested three suspects, police said this investigation is far from over. They believe that these three suspects are responsible for several other shootings that happened during the same time frame and that others could be involved.

Police said that gang crimes are often hard to investigate because the victims and witnesses usually do no want to cooperate or provide misleading information. Police said that when a person who is not involved in a gang becomes a victim they often are too fearful of retaliation to come forward.

One of the things that made these cases hard to investigate was the fact that gang members pass around their weapons to other gang members to make them harder to track, said police. The Center for Investigative Action detailed this practice, click here to see the video. According to police, gang members swap weapons like baseball cards.

Timeline of Events August 23, 2012 – Jorge Diaz was shot outside of the Monterey Health Clinic in Marina. Diaz survived the attack only to be gunned down a few months later in Seaside. Officers were able to arrest three people related to that shooting but they do not have any suspects for the murder.
March 3, 2013 – Two victims were shot while walking through a parking lot on the 1200 block of San Pablo Street in Seaside, said police. The victims were shot because one of them was mistaken for a rival gang member, said police.
July 11, 2013 – 22-year-old Eric Curiel was gunned down as he was walking on the 500 block of Elm Avenue in Seaside.
July 30, 2013 – 20-year-old Hugo Ricalde was shot and killed in his driveway as he returned home from work.
August 3, 2103 – Two men were shot at on the 900 block of Kimball Avenue in Seaside. The victims, who police said were not affiliated with any gangs, were not hurt but a nearby house and parked cars were hit by bullets.

Slideshow: Seaside Murder Suspects Arrested