El Sobrante man, 21, arrested in S.F. killings of father and 2 sons

Jaxon Van Derbeken,Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writers

Wednesday, June 25, 2008


Edwin Ramos, a suspected gang member arrested during a midnight raid, has a wife and baby.


This June, 2007 family photograph shows homicide suspect Edwin Ramos with his wife Amelia at a party. Photo courtesy Rosa Martinez


Michael Bologna



(06-25) 21:33 PDT San Francisco -- A member of a notoriously violent street gang was arrested and booked today on three counts of murder in the shootings of a San Francisco father and two sons in the city's Excelsior district that police believe stemmed from a minor traffic incident, authorities said.

Edwin Ramos, 21, of El Sobrante was arrested at 12:05 a.m. at his home on the 4300 block of Hilltop Drive in the Sunday slayings of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, authorities said. He was booked at 5 p.m. on the murder charges.

Police recovered a machete, an assault pistol and knives at the time of the arrest, but they have not found the weapon used in the shooting.

At a press conference this evening to announce the arrest, police said that Ramos is a member of a violent street gang but would not specify which organization.

"I believe he is, I think he would admit that he is a gang member," said Inspector Brian Delahunty of the homicide detail. Multiple police sources confirmed his membership in the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), which law enforcement officials consider one of the most dangerous street gangs in San Francisco and the country.

The jailed man has denied to police that he killed the Bolognas, authorities say.

The suspect's attorney, Joe O'Sullivan, said his client is a construction worker who is married to a bank worker and is the father of a young child.

He had a minor criminal record as a juvenile and was arrested in San Francisco a month ago on a weapons possession charge, but the case was dismissed after the district attorney's office found there was not enough evidence to tie him to the weapon, authorities said.

O'Sullivan said his client, who goes by the last name of Escobar, is a member of MS-13, an organization whose members contend is "nothing more than a soccer group."

Law enforcement authorities, however, consider MS-13 a sophisticated street gang with roots in El Salvador whose members are known to use high-powered weapons and even machetes and have been tied to everything from street extortion in San Francisco to firearms trafficking.

O'Sullivan said Ramos was the friend of the former head of MS-13 in the city, Luis Fuentes, who was killed at 24th and Hampshire streets on June 26, 2004. Fuentes was described at the trial as the "shot caller" for the gang in San Francisco. His convicted killer, a Norteno street gang member, was represented by O'Sullivan and another lawyer.

Ramos, O'Sullivan said, is soft-spoken and deferential.

"It sounds like the people who were victimized were lovely people, (and) it looks like the police could be jammed up to make an arrest," O'Sullivan said. "He's a fine young man. This is aberrational, totally out of character.

"It's a tragic case," he said.

Ramos was taken in during an early-morning raid Wednesday at a home on Hilltop Drive in El Sobrante home where he lived with Amelia, 20, his wife of several years.

The couple has an 11-month-old daughter, Jasmine, said Rosa Martinez, the suspect's mother-in-law who shares the home with the couple.

"I had no idea, honestly," Martinez said of Ramos' alleged involvement in the shooting over the weekend. "I feel so sorry for that family," she said of the Bolognas.

Martinez said she knew little about her son-in-law other than he worked at City Auto Supply in South San Francisco.

She said she warned her daughter, who has attended Contra Costa College in San Pablo, not to marry a man she believed was a gang member.

"I told her I didn't want her to marry a gang member, that she was making a terrible mistake for the rest of her life," Martinez said.

A search warrant affidavit for Martinez's home gave police the authority to search the premises for a bloody T-shirt, a white baseball cap, a brown sweater and a blue and gray sweater.

A list of items taken from the home and left behind by police included cell phones, identification cards, a machete, knives and the assault pistol. Martinez said - and authorities confirmed - that police also took away the suspect's new Chrysler 300.

Martinez and her family spent much of today cleaning up after the police raid of her two-story home in a modest neighborhood in the unincorporated Contra Costa County town. The home is on a main thoroughfare that shares a border with Richmond and is near a cemetery and Hilltop Mall.

At the press conference, Chief Heather Fong offered condolences to the family and thanked the community for its help. The case, she said, was broken after a man arrested by patrol officers identified Ramos as being involved in the shooting.

The Bolognas were on Congdon Street in the Excelsior just after 3 p.m. Sunday, driving home from a barbecue in Fairfield, when they inadvertently blocked another car from completing a left turn onto Congdon from Maynard Street, police said.

The shooting occurred after the elder Bologna backed up and let the car by, police said.

Tony Bologna, the night shift supervisor at a San Mateo grocery store, and Michael Bologna, a student at the College of San Mateo, were pronounced dead at the scene. Matthew Bologna, who attended Lincoln High School in San Francisco, died Tuesday night at San Francisco General Hospital.

The family has established two accounts for contributions. One is the Anthony Bologna Children's Fund, No. 934-426443-9, c/o Washington Mutual Bank, 845 Laurel St., San Carlos, CA 94070.

The other account has been created at Wells Fargo Bank. Checks can be made payable to the Bologna Family Fund, c/o Wells Fargo Private Client Services, Mac No. A0101-071, 420 Montgomery St., seventh floor, San Francisco, CA 94104.


E-mail the writers at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com and hlee@sfchronicle.com.

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