Thread: Live Video: PalmSprings Shooter

Two cops murdered in Palm Springs: Ex-con gang member arrested

POSTED BY CHRIS JENNEWEIN
ON OCTOBER 9, 2016 IN
CRIME |


Two Palm Springs police officers died and another was injured in a shooting after responding to a domestic disturbance call. A suspect was later captured. Photo via OnScene.TV.An ex-con gang member suspected of killing two Palm Springs police officers and wounding a third was arrested in the pre-dawn darkness early Sunday, 12 hours after a domestic disturbance call resulted in a deadly shooting.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department identified the suspect as John Felix, a 26-year-old resident of Palm Springs. He surrendered peacefully to sheriff’s SWAT members and was treated at a local hospital for non life-threatening injuries.

Felix had a criminal past, having been sentenced to four years in prison for an attempted murder scheme in 2009, according to the Desert Sun newspaper based in Palm Springs. He confessed to assault with a firearm at that time. The paper reported that Felix also had a 2013 arrest for fighting with police on the “same doorstep where Saturday’s shooting occurred.”

The Desert Sun identified Felix as a known gang member.



Officers Jose Gilbert Vega and Lesley Zerebny. Courtesy Palm Springs Police DepartmentThe officers killed were 63-year-old Jose Gilbert Vega, a 35-year department veteran, and 27-year-old Lesley Zerebny, who had been with the department for a year-and-a-half and who had recently given birth, Palm Springs Police Chief Bryan Reyes said.

“My employees are broken,” Reyes said. “If there was ever a time to pray for the Palm Springs Police Department, it is now.”

Vega could have retired from the department five years ago after 30 years of service, the chief said. He submitted paperwork to retire in December. “After 35 years he was still pushing a patrol car on a day he wasn’t even supposed to work.”

Vega was the married father of eight children.

Zerebny had been at the department 1 1/2 years and recently returned to work after giving birth to a daughter four months ago, Reyes said.

In her first two weeks on the job she found a wanted murder suspect from the Los Angeles area.

“Officers Vega and Zerebny were killed today doing what they do every day – protecting their community,” said Gov. Jerry Brown. “We grieve with the family members, friends and fellow officers coping with this senseless tragedy. Anne and I join all Californians in offering our heartfelt condolences.”
The officer who was injured was hospitalized and was “alert and doing well.”

The shooting happened at about 1 p.m. at a house in the 2700 block of Cypress Avenue in Palm Springs, according to Reyes.

Police had been responding to a family disturbance, according to officials who said the suspect emerged from a house and began firing.

‘It was a simple family disturbance and he elected to open fire,’ Reyes said.

The house where the shooting took place was surrounded by the Riverside County S.W.A.T. team and a perimeter of several blocks was set up, police said.

Reyes told reporters the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department had taken over the investigation and would decide when any suspect information was released.

Dozens of law enforcement personnel responded to the scene from multiple agencies, including the Hemet and the San Jacinto police departments, as well as Riverside County sheriff’s deputies.

The surrounding neighborhoods near the shooting were evacuated, authorities said.

Police urged residents in the area to stay indoors while they searched for the suspect.
No other injuries were reported.


http://mynewsla.com/crime/2016/10/09...mber-arrested/

Palm Springs police chief on cop killings: 'A majority of our answers ... are at the scene.'

Brett Kelman , The Desert Sun11:22 a.m. PDT
October 9, 2016
The slain police were Lesley Zerebny and Jose Gilbert “Gil” Vega. Reyes said Vega was a 35-year veteran who was due to retire in December and had chosen to work overtime on Saturday. Zerebny is the mother of a 4-month-old baby.



John Felix (Photo: Riverside County Sheriff's Department)

Police arrested known gang member John Felix in the killing of two Palm Springs police officers after a 12-hour standoff ended at about 1 a.m. early Sunday morning. Felix, 26, is accused of two counts of murder of a peace officer.

“Although an arrest has been made, understand there is along of work to be done,” said Palm Springs Police Chief Brian Reyes at a press conference midday Sunday. "The majority of our answers to what occurred are at the scene. It’s going to come down to investigators investigating at the scene.”

Felix was previously sentenced to four years in prison in an attempted gangland assassination. He was also the subject of a forceful arrest three years ago at the same doorstep where the Saturday shooting occurred.

The attempted murder plot occurred in 2009, when Felix and another suspect managed to shoot their target but did not kill him. Court records don't provide details of the shooting, but they do show that Felix pleaded down to assault with a firearm and admitted a connection to a street gang. He was given a two year prison sentence for the assault and an additional two years for his gang ties. His prison term would have expired in 2013.

Felix is now the suspect in the killing of two police officers – Jose Gilbert “Gil” Vega and Lesley Zerebny – who were gunned down on the 2700 block of Cypress Road on Saturday afternoon. A third officer, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was wounded. The officers were responding to a domestic disturbance at what appears to be Felix’s father’s house. They were shot through the front door, the police have said.

Felix's goal may have been to kill the officers all along. A neighbor, Frances Serrano, told The Desert Sun she spoke to Felix's father before the shooting, and he said his son had a gun and wanted to kill cops.

Soon after, she heard the gunshots.

Dozens of police then swarmed into the neighborhood, blockading the surrounding streets. Officers with tactical gear and military-style rifles took defensive positions around the house, and an armored vehicle and a bomb-disposal robot were also brought to the scene. Felix was captured alive at about 1 a.m.

He is being held without bail at Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on two counts of suspicion of murder on a police officer and one count of attempted murder on a police officer. He is due to appear in court at 8 a.m. Thursday.
The Palm Springs Police and Riverside County Sheriff's departments will together hold the news conference scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday. It is expected that the conference will focus on the arrest of Felix, said Deputy Mike Vasquez, a sheriff's department spokesman.

Three years ago, Felix was arrested by Palm Springs police in an event that began in an eerily similar manner to Saturday's shooting – a policeman on his doorstep.

In that case, a Palm Springs police detective came to the house on Cypress Road looking for Felix's brother. Felix cracked open the front door, and the detective recognized him as a parolee, so he demanded Felix open the door fully so he could be searched. Felix refused.

"I told John multiple times to open the door," wrote Detective Alberto Cantu in a court declaration. "I know that John is a member of a criminal street gang and has been involved in multiple shootings. Due to John's angry and agitated state, and history of violence, I requested dispatch to have an additional unit respond."

As backup arrived, Felix opened the door. Cantu grabbed his wrist, planning to search him for weapons, but Felix tried to pull away. Cantu dragged Felix out of the house, then the detective and another officer got him down on a bench. They were eventually able to force Felix into handcuffs.

He was booked for resisting arrest, but the charge was later dismissed and Felix was convicted of only a disturbance infraction.

Felix has been convicted of disturbing the peace in 2009 and misdemeanor DUI in 2014.

His co-defendant in the gang shooting case, Antonio Madrigal, was convicted of attempted murder at trial and is still in prison. Court documents suggest Madrigal was the actual shooter and Felix assisted.

By 8 a.m. Sunday, police had withdrawn from much of the neighborhood around the shooting scene, and remained only on a short segment of Cypress Road close to the Felix home.

The swarm of officers with assault rifle and tactical gear were gone, and all that was left was a few sheriff's department vehicles and a small road block manned by a lone deputy.

Motorists idled by on Francis Drive, as slow as they could, straining to see inside the scene of the tragedy that had struck the day before.The patrol car driven by the two officers who were killed remained at the scene.

There was no estimation for when the street may reopen.

"It will be closed for a while," Vasquez said.

A few blocks away from the shooting scene, Fred Elg, 93, was picking up handfuls of police tape left in his yard. Officers had put it up yesterday to rope off a perimeter, but now that the barricades had been pulled back, was no longer necessary.

Elg was anxious to have it gone.

“Oh God, it’s terrible,” he said, when asked about the shooting. “I was a naval aviator in the war and I saw a lot of destruction. What else can you do besides go on with your business?”

Elg said he had been watching college football Saturday afternoon when he heard several loud banging noises from somewhere outside his house. He opened his front door to investigate, but finding nothing, returned to watch the game. Hours later, his relatives called him – terrified.

There was a police standoff down the street. Two officers were dead. The banging noises, it turned out, were gunshots.
One of the first witnesses to report Saturday’s shooting was Mike Hill, 50, a former San Francisco Sheriff’s Department deputy whose home sits immediately behind the shooting scene. Hill said heard the unmistakable sound of five or six gunshots, then immediately called 911.

Soon, there was a cop at Hill's front door, asking for access to his backyard. Hill handed over the keys to his home, told the cops they were welcome to use his property however they needed, grabbed his two dogs and got out of the neighborhood. He came back Sunday morning, after Felix was caught.

Hill said he knew early on that two police officers had been killed. An officer told him shortly after the shooting began, likely because they knew he was in law enforcement.

“I've been to too many funerals,” Hill said, choking up as he spoke. “There was no reason for those two to die.”
“People want to Monday morning quarterback the police so much, but they don’t understand the mental hell they go through,” he added. “It’s one thing to deal with a dead body, but when it’s your brother in blue … Excuse my language, but it just f**** you up.”

http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/...lice/91814902/