Three masked men entered the northeast Morgan Hill home of a 62-year-old man the afternoon of Dec. 19—across the street from an elementary school—robbed the resident and shot him with a handgun before fleeing the area in a Hyundai Elantra, according to police.
Morgan Hill Police officers caught up with the suspects’ vehicle and arrested them shortly after the shooting. MHPD Capt. Shane Palsgrove said the incident was “not random” as the suspects knew the victim, and police records show a history of calls for service at the residence in recent months—including the Oct. 18 arrest of a subject on a felony warrant.
About 12:15pm Dec. 19, MHPD officers responded to reports of a shooting at a residence on the 17000 block of Calle Mazatan, according to authorities. The initial caller, the resident of the home, told police on the phone that someone was coming to shoot him.
Officers were on their way to the home, which is across the street from El Toro Elementary School’s campus, when they received another call from a witness who reported a victim had been shot, Palsgrove said.
When officers arrived at the home, the witness was inside helping the shooting victim downstairs. Officers provided first aid and the victim was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The man was shot once in the chest, police said.
While responding, police also heard from a witness that three people were seen running out of the home, into a vehicle, with their faces covered with bandanas, Palsgrove said.
With a description of the vehicle—a red Hyundai Elantra—officers shortly made a felony traffic stop on the suspicious car on U.S. 101 southbound, and arrested the three occupants without further incident in relation to the brazen home invasion, according to police. Recovered inside the vehicle was a handgun.
Police later identified the detained suspects as Armando Hernandez, 20, of Morgan Hill; Alex Griego, 21, of Morgan Hill; and Justin Heppler, 25, of San Jose. All three were booked on suspicion of attempted homicide, robbery and burglary.
Police declined to say how the suspects knew the victim.
The campus at El Toro Elementary was briefly locked down before the suspects were arrested, and the traffic stop resulted in traffic closures on the southbound side of U.S. 101.
While some MHPD officers were detaining the three suspects, others remained at the home on Calle Mazatan placing crime scene tape around the property and canvassing the area for evidence and witnesses. Officers were seen going in and out of the home.
History of police calls
Since July, MHPD has responded to the Calle Mazatan home eight times on a variety of calls, including the Dec. 19 shooting, according to police records. Most of these calls were recorded as “disturbances” involving disagreements among two or more people.
On Oct. 18, police visited the home to serve an arrest warrant out of the Gilroy Police Department for a 30-year-old man, on a $100,000 warrant for robbery and theft.
In a Dec. 18 “miscellaneous call,” the day before Tuesday’s shooting, someone called police to report that another subject with a warrant was hiding out inside the residence. The caller also told police that prostitution was occurring at the home.
Police again responded to the home July 22, Nov. 24 and Dec. 16 on separate disturbance calls; Oct. 27 on a report of “suspicious circumstances;” Sept. 29 for a parking citation; and July 22 for another disturbance, according to police records.
