Phoenix gang sweep nets arrest in homicide

9-month operation aims at NE Phoenix gangs

by Ofelia Madrid - Feb. 28, 2011 10:34 AM
The Arizona Republic

For more than three years, rumors swirled about who fatally shot 17-year-old Daniel Ramirez at a Fourth of July party when he stood to give his seat to a girl.

Almost immediately, Phoenix investigators knew that 2007 shooting was retaliation between rival gangs in north Phoenix. There was even a suspect, Corey Garner, known to police as a northeast Phoenix gang member.

Mugshots of those arrested http://www.azcentral.com/photo/Communit ... ixNE/18145

Homicide detectives soon hit a brick wall with witnesses who said they couldn't help.

"Everyone was hoping we'd figure it out, but people didn't want to get involved," Phoenix police Detective Heather Polombo said.

She sought help from the Arizona State Gang Task Force known as GIITEM, for Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission.

Led by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the team, which includes Phoenix and Scottsdale officers, investigates gang activity.

Garner's arrest on Feb. 18 was among 24 in what DPS officials called Operation: Justice in Paradise. The nine-month investigation focused on the northeast Phoenix gang and culminated in the murder arrest along with others charged with crimes that include possession of drugs, drugs sales, fraud, forgery, identity theft, burglary and theft.

"All these people can thank Corey Garner for their arrest," said Scottsdale police Detective Jim Hill, who is assigned to the DPS gang task force.

Garner, 26, faces first-degree murder and other charges in connection with Ramirez's murder.

The task force began questioning known party crews in northeast Phoenix. They start as a group of friends partying then escalate to selling drugs and committing burglaries and home invasions, authorities said. They meet the state definition of a gang, said DPS Officer Matt Kunda of the task force.

"It's not the movie 'Colors' anymore," said Kunda, referring to the 1988 film about Los Angeles street gangs. "Groups can get together a whole lot easier. They start as a party, then a party crew, then a gang."

These non-traditional gangs are forming in neighborhoods like the area around Paradise Valley and Horizon high schools, Hill said.

These police-documented northeast Phoenix gang members include college-aged men and women of all ethnicities who at one time or another predominately attended Paradise Valley High School, near 40th Street and Bell Road, police said.

Over time, the criminal street gang went from hosting parties to committing armed robberies, home invasions, aggravated assaults, narcotics sales, burglaries and trafficking in stolen property in northeast Phoenix.

In one instance, a member was arrested after soliciting donations for the high school football team. The member knocked on the door of a high school teacher, who knew that person had dropped out of school months earlier.

Another was caught stealing a tip jar from a pizza shop that had been set out to gather donations for fallen Phoenix police Officer Travis Murphy, who was killed in the line of duty in May.

One member told detectives he was a Congo refugee. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were notified.

The arrests and continued interviews helped with evidence in the Ramirez shooting. Those who saw him shot in the chest that summer night realized "they didn't get justice for Daniel magically," Polombo said.

Ramirez wasn't even associated with gang members, police confirmed. He had just arrived at a party of a friend of a friend near 27th Avenue and Rose Garden Lane in northwest Phoenix.

He had no idea that earlier in the evening, Garner and two others tried to get into the party of their rival gang to start a fight, according to court documents.

Garner and his friends left the party and agreed to meet the rival gang members to fight at a different location. As they left, the rival gang followed Garner and friends and shot at them, striking a friend in the foot.

Garner returned to the party and, according to court documents, later told a close friend that he used a handgun and admitted to shooting Ramirez.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/neph ... icide.html