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Last modified Sunday, February 19, 2006 8:00 PM PST


Longtime problems getting second look after fatal shootings

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer

RINCON INDIAN RESERVATION ---- The slayings earlier this month of three young men during a gun battle on the Rincon Indian Reservation have tribal leaders searching for answers to longtime problems in their community.

The issues include racial tension, gang activity, the need for more sheriff's deputies or tribal officers, enforcement of tribal laws that include keeping banned people off the reservation, and conflicts with some who rent property on the reservation, residents and tribal members said.

Meanwhile, behind closed doors, on telephones, and in e-mails and private conversations, fears and rumors have been flying about possible retaliation for the Feb. 3 slayings on Morales Lane.

The slayings have prompted tribal officials at the nearby Pauma Band of Mission Indians to ban nine people from their reservation and to hire extra security to patrol the reservation entrance, said Valerie Linton, Pauma's tribal administrator.

As of Friday, authorities had not given an official motive for the shootings, saying only that they involved two groups who don't like each other.

People who live and work at Rincon say the shootings that evening in the rural valley erupted from festering tension between some Latinos and American Indians. They suggested they may have been payback for a bullet fired into a different house in an earlier incident.

"There's been generations hating each other," said community activist Danny Perez, of Escondido, who used to work with security at Valley Center High School, where Rincon children attend classes. "I've seen this coming on for a long time."

He said Thursday that those who fired shots or were shot at that night "mostly represent what happened with the whole community."

"These kids are just getting in trouble because the whole community has allowed them to do that," Perez said.

Finding solutions

Rincon tribal chairman John Currier said the Rincon Tribal Council is committed to finding ways to prevent more violence, but it is not a simple matter of bringing one people or culture together.

Friction is created in part because some people who live on the very open reservation of about 3,918 acres northeast of Escondido aren't American Indians or even members of the Rincon band. Pockets of unincorporated county land also dot the reservation.

Only about 200 of the 1,500 to 1,800 Rincon residents are actual tribal members, and another 200 to 400 of the residents are relatives of members, said Currier.

People on the reservation said the racial makeup and the transitory nature of the rental population sometimes leads to volatile or stressful situations.

A tribal member who agreed to talk on condition that his name not be used insisted that the fatal shootings weren't the result of racial issues.

"It's gangsters who visit the renters (on the reservation)," he said. "They have nothing to lose. They don't have jobs. They don't have families. They don't have homes."

Whatever they see as the reason for Rincon's worst violence in 15 years, residents have made it clear to the tribal council that they don't want it to continue, Currier said. He said it has been a ground-breaking, sometimes frustrating and emotionally draining two weeks of long meetings as the five-member council tries to find answers to the problems and people who can help resolve them.

"We realize that there have been people who have been hurt on both sides of this issue," said Currier. "We want to make this a safe community. We want to do whatever we can to resolve conflicts."

Support sought

Phone calls supporting the council, which is making plans for community outreach and planning sessions, and the recent calm on the reservation have been encouraging to the tribal leaders as they try to find solutions, Currier said.

Whether Rincon's residents will sufficiently back the council's efforts, though, is another issue, the chairman and others said. One of them was a 27-year-old mother of a small boy who lives near the shooting site.

"Everybody's concerned around here because of what happened," said the woman, who did not want to be identified because of fear of retaliation. "Everybody wants them to clean up the reservation, and make it like it used to be."

However, she said she wasn't sure that residents will support the council's solutions.

Although four suspects are in custody in the slayings, some reservation residents said they are afraid that relatives or friends of the suspects or victims might retaliate against or start trouble for anyone who talks openly about the violence.

Currier said he thinks the right people are being brought together, from inside and outside the reservation, to help solve Rincon's problems, but the residents need to step up, too.

"We think this community is going to have to rise to the occasion, and I think they will," he said. "This is not something that's a short-term Band-Aid fix. It's a very crucial time for this tribe."

Simmering divisions

Tension between American Indians and Latinos in the North County area is not new.

The friction has been documented through more than a decade of headlines about occasional fights at area high schools, including a memorable May 2000 melee that involved about 40 students at Valley Center High School near Rincon.

Perez said the Feb. 3 slayings weren't gang-related, "but the gangs are getting involved because there are rumors."

"They're getting defensive," he said.

At least one of the three victims, 19-year-old Cristino Gomez, was a member of the Valleros, the local Latino gang that claims the Valley Center area, authorities said. The other two victims were David Edward Parada, 24, and Steve Casioce Jr., 23.

Gomez was a brother of one of the four defendants ---- Jose Gomez, 24; Alexandro Sibriano Moreno, 21; Esteban Avila, 21, and Ray Lewis Janis, 20.

Authorities said people died on both sides of the battle, which may explain why the suspects were charged in just two of the slayings. They have pleaded not guilty to two counts each of murder and three counts each of attempted murder involving victims who were injured.

Perez said he has been talking with the Valleros to try to help keep the situation calm.

"I just want to be sure that we get everybody talking," he said.

James Fletcher, head of the regional Bureau of Indian Affairs office, said Rincon needs to develop youth programs. The reservation has had gang-type groups for a time and the bureau can help deal with that, he said.

"But it takes the community, and it takes the tribe and us all working together to make that happen," said Fletcher. "You have a government there, and it needs to enforce the rules and regulations that it has. And it does have ways to enforce them."

Help available

The Indian Health Council on the reservation has been providing an after school program for about 70 to 80 children who attend the nearby All Tribes American Indian Charter School.

"We're training them to be more conscientious," said Deven Parlikar, the Indian Health Council's chief executive officer. "The kids are involved in several community projects."

The agency is providing crisis intervention services, counseling and community talking circles to all North County tribes because of the shootings, said Sheilamarie Racicot, director of the health council's behavioral health care department.

"Within the next year, our goal is to start creating tribal emergency response teams" that could immediately help with any kind of crisis, Parlikar said.

Rincon already contracts with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department for two deputies, and Currier said a third will also be hired. The possibility of having tribal law enforcement is also being discussed, he said.

Twenty more deputies were brought in to help the limited staff at the Valley Center Sheriff's Station keep peace for more than a week after the shootings.

Lt. Sean Gerrity, station commander, said he will focus his deputies' efforts on Rincon. The Sheriff's Department also has been identifying anyone who might be considering retaliation for the slayings or committing more violence, Gerrity said.

Other tribal leaders in the area, concerned about potential spillover from the Rincon situation onto their reservations, have talked with Gerrity.

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.