Reputed Mexican Mafia member wounded, another man killed in L.A. County shooting

[ad_1] A reputed member of the Mexican Mafia was wounded in a taking pictures Saturday that left a second man useless in Los Angeles County, authorities mentioned.

At 11 p.m., Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responded to a Veterans of Overseas Wars corridor on Valley View Avenue in La Mirada, the place they discovered two males with gunshot wounds within the parking zone, Lt. Steven De Jong mentioned.

Eric Ortiz, 34, died from gunshot wounds to the chest, De Jong mentioned. The lieutenant declined to call the surviving sufferer, who remained hospitalized in crucial situation. A regulation enforcement supply who wasn’t approved to talk publicly recognized him as Juan Garcia, a Mexican Mafia member referred to as “Topo.”

De Jong mentioned a bunch of gang members who weren't veterans had rented the VFW corridor for some sort of gathering. Most attendees had left by the point police arrived, and De Jong mentioned his detectives have “no suspect info in any respect.”

Initially from the Florencia-13 gang, Garcia, 63, served greater than 17 years in federal jail for racketeering. He was convicted of inciting a riot on the Lompoc jail in 2003.

That melee began after prisoners brewed up a batch of contraband alcohol referred to as pruno, based on a regulation enforcement report reviewed by The Occasions. A lieutenant was escorting an inmate to his workplace for a breathalyzer check when Garcia stepped in entrance of him.

“You aren't taking anyone,” he instructed the lieutenant, then shoved him. “Den les en la madre,” Garcia mentioned to the opposite inmates within the module, which jail officers translated as an order to assault the guards.

Eight inmates attacked the lieutenant, punching, kicking and choking him, the report says. As he and about 40 different employees members tried to flee the cellblock, Garcia demanded that one of many officers apologize to him.

The officer hesitated. An inmate punched him within the face. “I’m sorry,” he instructed Garcia, who then let the employees depart, based on the report. The doc says they carried with them a Muslim chaplain who had been overwhelmed unconscious and a meals companies employee who had been attacked with a broomstick.

The cellblock emptied of jail officers, Garcia broke all of the glass within the module and sprayed a fireplace extinguisher, the report says. With the assistance of different inmates, he barricaded the entryway with washing and merchandising machines, then proceeded to smash all the televisions, microwaves, sprinkler techniques and ice machines. Different inmates additionally beat a prisoner who didn't take part within the melee, based on the report.

The affiliate warden issued riot gear and masks to the guards, who quelled the riot with tear fuel, pepper spray, and “flash stun” and “multi blast” grenades, the doc says. Twenty-eight employees members and 4 inmates, together with Garcia, suffered accidents starting from cuts and bruises to a hernia and severe head trauma.

“This was a present of energy on the a part of inmate Garcia,” an investigator wrote within the report.

After pleading responsible to the crime of rioting at a federal facility, Garcia was sentenced in 2005 to a different six years on high of his racketeering time period.

A yr after his launch in 2020, Los Angeles Police Division officers have been patrolling sixty fourth Avenue in South L.A. once they noticed a silver Volkswagen Passat double-parked on the incorrect facet of the road, based on a probation report.

They noticed the driving force, Garcia, hand a gun to a person standing subsequent to the automobile, the report says. The person took off operating. When the police caught as much as him, the 31-year-old member of Florencia-13 appeared “afraid to reply my questions and denied figuring out Garcia,” the arresting officer wrote in a report.

Convicted of possessing a gun as a felon, Garcia was despatched again to federal jail in 2022 to serve 15 months. Earlier than he was sentenced, Steve Quinonez, chief govt of the Florence Firestone Group Group, wrote in a letter to the choose that Garcia volunteered for his group.