Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA) July 29, 1995 Section: News Edition: Final Page: A01 "DESTINY IS NOT A MATTER OF FATE, IT IS A MATTER OF CHOICE" LARRY SPEARS CONCORD Any illusions that this suburban city was immune from the horrors of gang warfare ended in the late hours of July 29 a year ago when someone shot 14-year-old Richard Orellana seven times and killed him. "It woke us up," said police Sgt. Tony Costa. "It was not the old days, when we were dealing with young kids who were just calling themselves by gang names. They had graduated to their next step, where they were shooting each other." Richard was not a gang member, but police said his assailants mistook him for a rival gang member. Cruz, 22, Galdamez, 21, Deas, 19, and Sosa, 18, await trial on murder charges. TWO HELD IN SHOOTINGS AT CONCORD COMPLEX CONCORD - Police have arrested a man and a teen-ager in an apparent gang shooting that wound-ed a man and a 15-year-old boy at a Laguna Street apartment complex Feb. 4. At about 11 p.m. Friday, officers took Saravia, 18, of Concord into custody at an acquaintance's apartment in the 1700 block of Pine Street, Concord Sgt. Joe Kreins said. At about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, police arrested a 17-year-old boy at his Concord home, Kreins said. He declined to pinpoint the location or... DRIVER, OFFICER HURT IN ALTERCATION, POLICE SAY THE CONCORD OFFICER SHOT THE DRIVER, WHO IS IN SERIOUS CONDITION, AND WAS HOSPITALIZED HIMSELF AFTER BEING DRAGGED 500 FEET CONCORD -- A motorcycle patrol officer was dragged about 500 feet by the driver of a stolen vehicle Wednesday on Port Chicago Highway before shooting and injuring the man, police said. The Concord patrol officer was taken to John Muir Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition. The suspect was taken to the same hospital, where he was listed in serious condition with a bullet wound to his shoulder, police said. Their names were not released. Police said the incident began at... MAN SHOT IN FOOT OUTSIDE CONCORD GROCERY STORE CONCORD A Concord man was shot in the foot Saturday night outside the Solano Foods store, the third gang-related shooting in the neighborhood within two months, police said. Rivera, told police he and two friends were in front of the store about 10 p.m. when they were confronted by three youths, said police Lt. Barry Dansie. One of the youths pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired several rounds, hitting Rivera twice in the foot, he said. After the shooting, the youths got... POLICE PROBE SHOOTING OF TWO YOUTHS IN CONCORD CONCORD -- A 14-year-old boy remained in serious but stable condition Thursday after being shot in the back during a gang-related drive-by shooting in north Concord. The youth was still in the critical care unit at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, Police Lt. Ron Ace said. A nursing supervisor at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Martinez, where a second youth was taken after being shot in the knee, declined to say if the boy was still hospitalized or comment on his condition... GIRL, 14, SHOT IN THE LEG DURING DRIVE-BY ATTACK CONCORD - A 14-year-old girl was shot in the leg during a drive-by attack at a check-cashing business on busy Monument Boulevard Saturday night. The victim, whom police did not identify, managed to run to a nearby convenience store after the shooting and collapsed in the parking lot. She was taken by ambulance to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where a nursing supervisor said she was in fair condition. Within minutes of the 7:30 p.m. shooting, Concord police officers... IN CONTRA COSTA, RED OR BLUE COLOR LIVES OF GANG MEMBERS CONCORD For more than four years, 17-year-old Hugo Gutierrez wore the look and the attitude of a Sureno gang member. Lazy Girl, a 16-year-old Nortena, still has that same look and attitude. Their non-threatening, even cordial manners during interviews belie the violence they have seen as rivals on Concord streets. Both are of Mexican heritage. In the past three months in Concord, tensions have erupted in gunfire that has left two juveniles and an adult wounded. Gang members want... CONCORD MAN HELD IN ATTACK OF GIRL, WHO WAS BEATEN, SHOT CONCORD An 18-year-old Concord man was arrested Wednesday in connection with a gang-related attack Aug. 11 in which a 17-year-old girl was beaten with a baseball bat and shot in the head. Williams, 18, was arrested at the Estates shopping center on suspicion of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He is being held at the County Jail in Martinez on more than $1 million bail. The victim, whose identity is being withheld to protect her safety, survived the assault when the... CONCORD SEES RISE IN GANG VIOLENCE Police seek ways to calm tensions Staff writer CONCORD A rash of shootings involving rival gangs in a Solano Way neighborhood is likely a prelude to more gang violence, a police gang mediator said Thursday. "It has been evolving and these guys are entering the hard-core' lifestyle," said Jim Hernandez. "The incidents are more traumatic or intense and the guns are coming out. It is not a good sign." He said he has talked... 1 MAN SHOT, 1 IS KNIFED IN CONCORD CONCORD Two men were wounded Friday in separate incidents, police said. In the first incident, a man in his 20s was shot in the shoulder with a small-caliber weapon on Virginia Lane near Monument Boulevard, said Concord police Lt. Barry Dansie. The shooting occurred at 5:30 p.m. Police were looking for two suspects, possibly in their 20s, with short-cropped hair. Dansie said witnesses' accounts were conflicting, but there had apparently been a verbal altercation before one...FIVE ARRESTED IN CONCORD PLAZA SHOOTING Police arrested an adult and four teen-agers Friday after an officer said she saw one of them shoot at other youths in the parking lot of Oak Grove Plaza at Treat Boulevard and Oak Grove Road. The young men were targeting someone attending summer school at Ygnacio Valley High School next to the shopping center, said Concord police Lt. Ron Ace. The 12:30 p.m. drive-by may have been gang-related, he said. Police did not know if anyone was injured because the victims fled. Several patrons and...SHOTS RING OUT, GANG MEMBERS SHOW UP Unknown suspects fired seven shots into a house in North Concord, an incident which police officers believe was gang-related after several gang members arrived at the home after the shooting. Police received an 11:40 p.m. call, Saturday, Aug. 1, concerning the shooting on the 2500 block of Hamilton Avenue. Four bullets shattered a plate-glass window, one hit the window frame, and two hit the stucco exterior. However, police said two bullets passed through a wall in the home, into a room... BULLETS TEAR THROUGH APARTMENT COMPLEX Bullets tore through apartments early Saturday morning at an apartment complex on the 1500 block of Mendocino Drive in a suspected gang-related shooting. Cpl. Doug Moore of the Concord Police Department said the target of the shooting is a suspected Norteno gang member. While several bullets penetrated the targeted apartment, other bullets hit other apartments as well. Moore said one bullet missed a sleeping 10-year-old girl by three feet. No one reported injuries. Moore said that... MAN I CAN POST THESE ARTICLEZ UP ALL DAY SO DONT GET IT TWISTED THEY GET DOWN IN DA C- TOWN BITCH
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