Recent killings prompt raids on gang suspects
11:55 PM PDT on Thursday, March 22, 2007
By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise
Survey: Are sweeps effective in suppressing crime?
RIALTO - Violence between rival Rialto gangs, including two recent killings, pushed police into sunrise raids of about 20 homes Thursday in search of weapons.
More than 100 officers from Rialto, San Bernardino and as far away as Los Angeles participated in serving 19 search warrants throughout the area. Their purpose: to put pressure on members of two city gangs blamed for a spate of recent shootings.
One gang has been especially active after a Jan. 31 nonfatal shooting by a rival gang, said Rialto police Lt. Joe Cirilo.
"They're going back and forth retaliating against each other," Cirilo said, "and this is a direct result."
On Feb. 20, a suspected gang member was killed just outside Rialto city limits in San Bernardino, police said.
Three days later, two gang members are suspected of approaching a man as he sat in his car outside a 7-Eleven store on Riverside Avenue in Rialto. Police say they shot him to death when he answered, "Rialto" to the question, "Where are you from?"
Two men charged in connection with that crime misunderstood Michael R. McCoy, the victim, to mean he was with a gang, police have said. But McCoy was not a member of a gang, police said.
"When they can just go out and shoot someone sitting in a parking lot of a 7-Eleven..." Cirilo said. "There are innocent people being shot."
At one of the raided homes Thursday, police found a shotgun that they suspect was used in the Feb. 23 slaying at 7-Eleven, Cirilo said. They also recovered 13 other firearms, including high-powered, assault-style models.
Nine people were arrested in the raids, mostly on parole violations, Cirilo said. None were suspects in the killings.
The morning operation was conducted with the assistance of San Bernardino, Colton, Fontana, Redlands, Pomona and Los Angeles police, as well as Los Angeles and San Bernardino County sheriff's departments, county probation and state parole officers and federal Drug Enforcement Agency members.
For almost five hours, 120 officers fanned out across Rialto and neighboring cities to serve the warrants, which were signed in San Bernardino County Superior Court in Fontana. In assisting the effort, San Bernardino police officials said they believe they're helping their city's violent crime problem as well.
The Feb. 20 killing of Riley Hurtado, who police suspect was a Rialto gang member, took place in San Bernardino.
"We've got to think regionally rather than by city," said San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson. "Gangs oftentimes do spill into other cities."
Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com
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BS Ranch Perspective:
Looks like some great work being done to clear up some of the Violent Gang Activity that has been building up through the years with Chief Michel Meyers, Old Gang Policy, of the following, Gangs? Rialto? There is a Gang Problem in Rialto? Anyone that came up with a different question other then that when anyone brought up a question about a Gang in Rialto he would have to have the Oh? There is a Gang? Wow, that is news to me. I will get go to tell our gang unit, that didn't exist, and never existed as long as Michael Meyers was Chief of Police at Rialto Police department.
BS Ranch
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