Thread: Sacramento: Residents in immigrant neighborhoods express fea

Residents in immigrant neighborhoods express fear about slayings
By Crystal Carreon

Published 5:39 pm PDT Sunday, April 13, 2008

A shudder of fear began piercing south Sacramento's immigrant neighborhoods Sunday, as authorities intensified their efforts to find the gunman behind the recent slayings of three Mexican men.

Unable to explicitly link the crimes to a serial killer or a hate motive, Sacramento police on Sunday continued to stress their "great concern" over "a high number of consistencies" in the shootings, and said they were not ruling anything out, Sgt. Matt Young said.

The concerns have already triggered a massive, multiagency search for the killer, and police on Sunday issued bilingual pleas for anyone - regardless of immigration status - to come forward with information into the deaths of:

** 32-year-old Raul Magana-Valencia, who was shot to death while pulling out of his driveway on Hogan Drive on the morning of Feb. 19;

** Alejo Zavala, 20, killed while driving on 24th Street near Glen Ellen Circle half-past-midnight March 9;

** Oscar Gamez-Carreon, 22, who was fatally shot while driving down 42nd Street at around 1:30 a.m. March 29.

The three shootings - which all occurred within -- about a mile-radius around 47th Avenue -- victimized three Mexican nationals with no criminal histories in the county, police said. Each individual was fired upon multiple times while driving.

Police said they believed Zavala was shot by someone in a passing car, described as a dark American-made sedan. A passenger in Zavala's Mitsubishi Gallant was not injured in the shooting.

At La Superior Market on Stockton Boulevard, supervisor Adolfo Mendoza studied the photo of Gamez-Carreon in the Sunday newspaper.

The young man had worked behind the butcher counter at the store for just 15 days, Mendoza said, before his death, noting the young man's punctuality and work ethic. Gamez-Carreon was earning income to help support his 3-year-old son.

But Mendoza also looked at the photo of Magana-Valencia; he, too, had worked at the store a few years ago.

Both men, Mendoza said, were good employees.

"This is disturbing," he said amid the crush of Sunday shoppers. "I will tell others to be more careful about their surroundings."

Mexican consul general in Sacramento, Alejandra Bologna, reserved sounding any alarms in the local Mexican community on Sunday until the law enforcement investigation is completed.

"We condemn any violent actions or crimes, but I think we need to wait ... for the results of the investigation," Bologna told The Bee. "If not, there will be too much speculation, and that is not good for the community."

On Sunday, Young said he hoped residents will come forward without any fear of deportation or other penalties.

"A person's immigration status is of no relevance to our investigation," he said of the homicides. "... There's too much at stake, here. Three men - three good men - have lost their lives."

Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP, the police department's homicide unit at (916)808-0650, or the Sacramento County Sheriff's homicide unit at (916) 874-5057.

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/859174. ... ments_here

This is a strange situation, have to follow and see what they come up with.