More gang activity in the South County than police remember in
recent years has prompted Morgan Hill Police to seek a meeting with
local agencies to share information and talk about strategies for
gang suppression.
More gang activity in the South County than police remember in recent years has prompted Morgan Hill Police to seek a meeting with local agencies to share information and talk about strategies for gang suppression.
“We’re keeping our eyes and ears out,” MHPD Cmdr. Joe Sampson said Monday. “Now it seems Gilroy and Hollister have had their turn. We’re in close communication with Gilroy, but we’re not at the same level with Hollister. We need to have a better communications loop in south Santa Clara.”
Two Gilroy teens were injured Friday afternoon in an apparent gang-related shooting at a busy shopping center, and the previous Friday, Oct. 21, two 19-year-old men were shot in a drive-by-style shooting in Hollister.
On Sept. 30 – also a Friday – Morgan Hill Police found themselves dealing with the city’s first homicide in four years, as Luis Santos Bautista, 19, of Gilroy was shot four times in an apparent gang incident behind the Safeway grocery store in Tennant Station shopping center. He died later that evening. Anthony James Frausto, 18, of Morgan Hill is being held without bail in Santa Clara County Jail. Police are still seeking two men they say could be accomplices.
Sampson said he believes the shootings are all related.
“It all kind of ties together,” he said. “There’s probably some level of retaliation.”
Bautista was alleged a member of the Sureño gang, while Frausto and the others present when Bautista was shot are believed to be Norteños.
The shooters in Gilroy were likely Sureños, but the family of the victims deny that they are Norteños. One of the victims was wearing shorts that were red, the color associated with Norteños. The two were shot from behind with pellets from a single shotgun blast, according to police.
The two victims in Hollister, whose names are being withheld by police for protection, were shot once each in the chest in front of a residence. Both men have gang ties, according to police, but which gang the two are identified with is also being withheld at this time.
Sampson, who has had experience with gang suppression in southern California before he joined the MHPD, said the targets of these gang shootings were likely chosen at random.
“In an area with this level of gang activity, it is usually pretty random,” he said. “They just happen to drive by or come upon someone from the rival gang and decide to shoot at them. Particularly out here, since we don’t have a sophisticated network of gang activity. Other areas with more activity, you might see them target specific players. But I think this was really random.”
There have been no new developments in the Bautista murder, Sampson said.
“Detectives are now putting together a more global gang strategy,” he said. “We’ll be meeting with Gilroy police, with county probation people, with gang DA’s, to develop a more formalized strategy to deal with some of these issues.”
Some of the things the group will concentrate on is planning how best to use each agency’s resources and notification protocol, as well as sharing information.
“This is really a new phenomenon for this area,” Sampson said. “In recent history, this city and indeed, South county, has not had this many major incidents, these kind of flare-ups. We need to get together and brainstorm, in light of what we have seen recently.”
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 Ext. 202 or at md****@*************es.com.
