Six people, including a young mother and her 10-month-old boy, were killed in a “cartel-style” massacre last month in central California, and two suspects were hauled into custody on Friday.
Sheriff Mike Boudreaux of Tulare County revealed at a press conference that the suspects, 35-year-old Angel Uriarte and 25-year-old Noah Beard, are well-known Norteo gang members. He speculated that the shooting on January 16th stemmed from tensions with the Sureos, another local gang.
Boudreaux added, “the motivation is not entirely evident at this moment,” but that “the suspects and the victims have a lengthy history of gun violence, heavily active in guns, gang violence, gun violence, and drugs deals.”
Authorities said that a shootout occurred between Uriarte and ATF agents prior to his capture, during which he sustained injuries. Acting ATF Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson said that he is in the hospital and doing fine. Without a hitch, Beard was arrested.
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Alissa Parraz, 16, and her 10-month-old son, Nicholas, were shot and killed by suspect Christopher Beard as they ran from the scene of an evening shooting at their house in Goshen, an agricultural village about 30 miles southeast of Fresno. On Friday, authorities released footage from a surveillance camera showing the young mother carrying her son over a fence. The bodies of the two people were discovered on the road outside the house.
In addition to Alissa and her son, four other people were killed in the shooting: Marcos Parraz, 19, Eladio Parraz, 52, Rosa Parraz, Alissa’s grandmother, and Jennifer Analla, 49.
Gunshot wounds were the cause of death for all of the victims, according to Boudreaux; most of the adults and the 10-month-old boy were shot in the head.
It’s obvious that this was not a random act of violence. Boudreaux remarked, “This family was specifically targeted by a group of cold-blooded killers.”
The raids on multiple California jails and the round-the-clock monitoring of the suspects over the past 10 days were all part of a coordinated multi-agency effort codenamed “Operation Nightmare,” which led to the arrests. Police were able to rapidly narrow down the suspects because of DNA evidence left at the site.
According to Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward, Uriarte, and Beard, each faces six counts of murder, with enhancements for the use of a firearm and the fact that the crimes were conducted as members of a criminal street gang. Conviction of the suspects could result in the ultimate application of capital punishment.
Before a string of mass shootings in California at the end of last month, one of which occurred during a Lunar New Year celebration in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Monterey Park, the massacre took place. Eleven persons were killed in that shooting on January 21.
Four more people were killed on January 23 in an attack on a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay, California. One person was killed and seven others were injured in a shooting that same evening in Oakland.
