If you have a child in a Visalia elementary school, chances are he or she is going to get to know Rob Zieg. Maybe you should, too.
Zieg is a Visalia police officer who speaks to just about every second- to sixth-grader every year, as well as to teachers and other school officials and to parents.
He warns students about the dangers of gangs and how to avoid them.
He trains teachers to spot the signs of gang activity among students.
And he holds classes for parents on the possible warning signs of gang involvement or "pre-gang" signs and what to do about them.
"Parents need to know what their kids are doing, who their friends are, what's in their rooms, their backpacks. That's what's going to tell them who their kids are," Zieg said.
Dealing with the problem early is the reason he talks to children as young as second grade. He's seen third-graders wearing gang-style clothing, flashing gang signs.
"Second-graders can tell me what the [gang] colors are and what the numbers mean," Zieg said.
Some also can tell them about parents in prison for gang activity, the crimes committed in their neighborhoods by gang members and where they hang out.
"Once they're jumped in [a gang], they're pretty much in a gang for life," Zieg said. So he hopes trying to dissuade children from gangs well before they hit their teen years will keep some out.
But Zieg's work may not be enough unless parents act, too. And, he said, that can begin by looking for possible warning signs that their children may be involved with gangs:
Change of attitude and behavior
"Disrespect is one of the first signs. Are they being disrespectful, and are they basically staying out late and not inviting their friends over? That's the start of it," Zieg said.
He added that children may start using course language and make gang references around their parents and other family members.
If youths are involved with racist gangs, they may make a lot of racist comments, Zieg added.
And being disrespectful to parents and society is among the ways gang members gain status among other gang members, he explained. "Because the gang, of course, is their family. That family sets the rules."
Criminal activity
That disrespect can extend beyond a child's household and manifest as criminal activity.
"The more crimes you commit, the more respect you get from the gang members," Zieg said.
School
Children involved with gangs may lose interest in school, Zieg said. "If that happens, then we've got a problem."
Often teachers are the first to notice the changes, so it's important for parents and teachers to talk, he added.
But school problems don't always manifest in the lives of gang members.
Zieg said he knows of Asian gang members who have been top students and still hang out with their gangs after school.
And if children bring knives or guns to school, "it's usually for protection," which probably means other youths, possibly rival gang members, are after them, he said.
Drugs
Law enforcement members throughout Tulare County say gangs and drugs go hand in hand, with many gang members not only getting high but also trafficking drugs to fund their activities.
"Parents need to look at drug activity, paraphernalia, like little smoking pipes," Zieg said. "Alcohol, that's a biggie."
Music, video games and magazines
Lyrics about killing, guns, shooting cops and gangs, as well as video games with similar themes can give clues to the mindsets children may be developing, Zieg said.
"That's society to them. That's what they believe is right," he said.
Tulare County Sheriff's Detective Joe Aguilar, who runs gang-prevention programs for schools in unincorporated parts of the county, said magazines and books with photos and drawings of gang members or content glorifying drugs, weapons and violence also should be of concern to parents.
Computers
If their children have e-mail or MySpace Web page, parents should look at them, as youths often post photos and comments that could show gang involvement, Zieg said.
Writing in school books and notebook
Children scribbling in their notebooks and school books is nothing new, but what they're putting down may be among the biggest clues of whether they are involved with gangs.
"Basically, the writing is all about '14' and '13,' " Zieg said. Those are some of ways youths signify the Norteño and Sureño and gangs.
Other symbols can include "15," symbolizing Asian gangs, while swastikas, "311" and "88" are used by racist gangs.
"We've seen some of the kids with gang writing in their binders and comments made as far as 'scraps' and 'busters,'" said Shirley Williams, vice principal at Fairview Middle School in north Visalia.
Those are derogatory terms for gang members.
"That's not something we tolerate at school," Williams said. And parents are notified, she added.
As school books go, Aguilar said, parents should ask, "are pages 13 or 14 highlighted or marked out?"
And police said there are children who will not answer questions 13 or 14 on tests or avoid using Ns (connected to the Norteño gang) and Ms (Sureño, or Mexican Mafia) in their homework.
Clothes
Trying to get a gauge on gang involvement based on how youths dress isn't always easy.
Certainly, there are gang members who wear red or blue or other colors to show their affiliations, but Aguilar said that occurs a lot less than it used to.
And some of the "gangster" styles have found their way into mainstream fashions. So some youths may dress like gangsters without actually being gang members.
Even some of the sports shirts and jackets may have meanings to those involved with gangs that parents don't see.
For example, Zieg said, some Norteños like to wear Oakland Raiders jackets and shirts because "Oakland Raiders" has 14 letters — for "N," the 14th letter in the alphabet — and part of "Raiders" spelled backwards is "red," the gang's color.
And among gang members, "NFL" may not mean "National Football League," but rather, "Norteño for Life."
And Norteño girls have even adopted the Francisco 49ers shirts and jackets that say, "SF." To them, that stands for "Sweet 14," Zieg said. "So a lot of our girl members love those jackets."
And children avoiding certain colors could be a red flag, too, Williams said.
But no one thing is necessarily a sure sign a child has fallen in with a gang.
Zieg recounted one incident of a student wearing to school a bright blue T-shirt with the number 13 in large letters on the front.
The boy wasn't a Sureño, however. His mother had given him the shirt for his 13th birthday not realizing both the number and color might lead people to think the boy was a Sureño, Zieg said.
By the same token, he said, playing "Grand Theft Auto" a violent video game, or drug use or a change in attitude doesn't make a youth a gang member.
Often, it's the various signs taken together that parents should consider, and they can contact school resource officers to discuss what they've found and decide on courses of action, which may include the officers providing one-on-one counseling to the youths or referring them to other programs that may help.
Zieg said it's particularly important to get youths involved in after-school activities to keep them away from gang influences, and he has found that "church is a must" in further helping these youths.
"That's where the mom and dad come in. Those two are so important to make this work," he explained. "We cannot change a kid's mind. We can give them the tools, but we can't make them go to church."
And parents can't be timid about looking through their children's rooms and backpacks and computers.
If they find "negative" items — music with themes, gang literature, T-shirts showing people with guns or glorifying gangs, etc. — they need to get rid of them, Zieg said.
"Parents are in charge of the house. That stuff needs to be taken away immediately," he said. "The house needs to be a no-gang house."
And if parents are scared of their children, they still need to take action, Zieg said. "Because a kid who is in a gang is probably in charge of the house."
Getting parents in parenting classes may help, he added.
And parents can call police if they commit crimes or threaten them, Zieg said.
While getting their children arrested may not be what parents want, it could be the best thing for those youths, as their sentences could compel them to get counseling or land them in the county's juvenile boot camp, he added.
Of course, some parents are too scared to call police
"You've gotta do it. You've gotta make the call. You've gotta make the change. You can't live in fear," Zieg said.
By David Castellon
Staff writer
The reporter can be reached at dcastell@visalia.gannett.com.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
GANG TERMS AND SYMBOLSPRE-GANG BEHAVIOR
Children with ties or interest in gangs often display "pre-gang" behavior as early as elementary school. Here is a list that Visalia police school resource officers distribute listing some of those behaviors that parents can look for:
Graffiti, gang-style or old English-style writing on notebooks, papers, books, shoes, etc.
Bald head or very close shaved hair.
Wears exaggerated, baggy clothes.
Wears silver-colored initial belt buckles.
Uses gang language or phrases; gang signs.
Change of friends to gang members or taggers, boyfriend or girlfriend in a gang.
Negative attitude at home or school.
Disruptive behavior or lost of interest in school.
Truancy or ditches school; skips last classes.
Drop in grades.
Wears large, dark jackets on warm days.
Threatens or fights with other children.
Wears long shorts sagging beneath the knee and socks reaching the knee.
Receives threats from gang youths.
Stays out late at night.
Lacks hobbies, interests or something positive to do with free time.
Has negative contact with the police.
Wears excessive and dark colored makeup.
Girls wear large hoop earrings, revealing blouses.
Girls having thin or shaved eyebrows.
Has an interest in tattoos or writes on body.
Carries permanent markers or spray cans.
Sources: Gang Resistance Is Paramount, Visalia Police Department.
Confused by what your children write on their books, notebooks and binders? Here are some of the words, symbols and their meanings that may indicate involvement or interest in gangs and drug activities..
13, XIII, X3, S, Sur, Sureño, Trece, EME, M, Mexican Mafia —Words, numbers and letters signifying southern street gangs.
14, X4, XIV, Norteño, N, Norte, Catorce —Words, numbers and letters signifying northern street gangs.
15, XV, X5, O —Words, numbers and letters signifying Asian or "Oriental" gangs.
123 — 100 percent white.
187 — Penal Code for murder.
24/7 — Being a gangster all day and all week long.
311 — KKK (Ku Klux Klan).
88 — Heil Hitler.
A8 —Adolf Hitler.
BG — Baby gangster, 12 years of age or younger.
Buster — Derogatory term referring to a Norteño gang member.
Chiva, carga, la negra —Heroin.
Crank, go fast — Methamphetamine.
Cuete — A firearm.
Cuz, cuzz — "Partner" or "brother," used by Asian gang members.
Dove — Rock cocaine.
Featherwood/Peckerwood — A featherwood is a white, female gang member; a peckerwood is a white male gang member. Both are symbolized by woodpeckers.
Full bird/half bird — One pound or kilo or half a pound or kilo of cocaine.
Powder, candy— Cocaine.
Rag — Bandanna used as a gang symbol.
Rat Pack — When a group or gang beat up a person; more than one person jumping another.
Scrap, scrapa, scrap wood, sewer rat — Derogatory terms referring to Sureño gang members.
Tag — To write on walls, etc.; graffiti.
Sources: "Street Gangs in Tulare County," published by the Tulare County Office of Education; Tulare County Sheriff's Department
Graffiti, gang-style or old English-style writing on notebooks, papers, books, shoes, etc.
Bald head or very close shaved hair.
Wears exaggerated, baggy clothes.
Wears silver-colored initial belt buckles.
Uses gang language or phrases; gang signs.
Change of friends to gang members or taggers, boyfriend or girlfriend in a gang.
Negative attitude at home or school.
Disruptive behavior or lost of interest in school.
Truancy or ditches school; skips last classes.
Drop in grades.
Wears large, dark jackets on warm days.
Threatens or fights with other children.
Wears long shorts sagging beneath the knee and socks reaching the knee.
Receives threats from gang youths.
Stays out late at night.
Lacks hobbies, interests or something positive to do with free time.
Has negative contact with the police.
Wears excessive and dark colored makeup.
Girls wear large hoop earrings, revealing blouses.
Girls having thin or shaved eyebrows.
Has an interest in tattoos or writes on body.
Carries permanent markers or spray cans.
Sources: Gang Resistance Is Paramount, Visalia Police Department.
Confused by what your children write on their books, notebooks and binders? Here are some of the words, symbols and their meanings that may indicate involvement or interest in gangs and drug activities..
13, XIII, X3, S, Sur, Sureño, Trece, EME, M, Mexican Mafia —Words, numbers and letters signifying southern street gangs.
14, X4, XIV, Norteño, N, Norte, Catorce —Words, numbers and letters signifying northern street gangs.
15, XV, X5, O —Words, numbers and letters signifying Asian or "Oriental" gangs.
123 — 100 percent white.
187 — Penal Code for murder.
24/7 — Being a gangster all day and all week long.
311 — KKK (Ku Klux Klan).
88 — Heil Hitler.
A8 —Adolf Hitler.
BG — Baby gangster, 12 years of age or younger.
Buster — Derogatory term referring to a Norteño gang member.
Chiva, carga, la negra —Heroin.
Crank, go fast — Methamphetamine.
Cuete — A firearm.
Cuz, cuzz — "Partner" or "brother," used by Asian gang members.
Dove — Rock cocaine.
Featherwood/Peckerwood — A featherwood is a white, female gang member; a peckerwood is a white male gang member. Both are symbolized by woodpeckers.
Full bird/half bird — One pound or kilo or half a pound or kilo of cocaine.
Powder, candy— Cocaine.
Rag — Bandanna used as a gang symbol.
Rat Pack — When a group or gang beat up a person; more than one person jumping another.
Scrap, scrapa, scrap wood, sewer rat — Derogatory terms referring to Sureño gang members.
Tag — To write on walls, etc.; graffiti.
Sources: "Street Gangs in Tulare County," published by the Tulare County Office of Education; Tulare County Sheriff's Department
Injunctions against gang members upheld by courts
Gang injunctions, challenged regularly in California courts since the first one was obtained in Los Angeles 20 years ago, appear to hold up under judicial scrutiny, their defenders say.
Visalia City Attorney Alex Peltzer, who is working with police to petition for the city's first gang injunction, based on the California nuisance code, legislative action and court rulings, said he also plans to be ready for a legal challenge. "We're preparing to be able to defend it," he said, though he added that he believes the legal basis for gang injunctions is solid.
Los Angeles, which got the first civil gang injunctions 20 years ago, has faced legal challenges. "All of our injunctions have been upheld," Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, said.
He said that he knows of no communities in California where gang injunctions have been successfully challenged in the courts.
In 2001, California's 4th District Court of Appeal upheld a trial court's ruling that gang injunctions are constitutional, rejecting a challenge to a 1997 attempt to get an injunction against 28 members of the Posole street gang in Oceanside.
Although that ruling was further appealed, the state Court of Appeal upheld it.
Still, success in the courtroom has not stopped questions about whether the injunctions violate civil liberties by interfering with the constitutionally guaranteed freedom to assemble.
Officials at the American Civil Liberties Union are among those critics, but the group would not provide anyone to be interviewed on the subject. Instead, officials cited a statement on the ACLU Web site that cited several objections to gang injunctions, including:
They aren't effective at curbing violence because they don't address the root causes of that violence.
Injunctions are more motivated by politics than solving community problems.
The injunctions give police too much leeway to harass and target "young men of color," even those who aren't gang members.
The practice imposes permanent, probation-like restrictions with no clear way out.
Don Gallian, assistant district attorney for Tulare County, said, "It does look like fairly solid law."
But, he added, when a law enforcement agency here does present prosecutors with its investigative findings to seek a gang injunction, his office will look at the case and the law carefully before going forward.
While it looks likely that Visalia police and Tulare County sheriff's investigators will seek gang injunctions in the coming months, a first for the county, authorities have looked into them before.
John Jackson, a criminal defense attorney in Visalia, said that seven years ago he was a Tulare County prosecutor who was directed to see if a gang injunction could be filed here.
"And I think our general consensus at the time [was] down in Los Angeles the gangs really are turf oriented. It's basically block by block," he said.
All the members of many Los Angeles gangs lived in the same blocks or neighborhoods with clear boundaries that made enforcing the injunctions fairly simple, Jackson said
"They're just as brutal here as in Los Angeles, but we're kind of different in that our gangs are not really differentiated block by block."
In fact, Jackson said, rival Sureño and Norteño gang members may live on the same block or members could be spread from Visalia to Goshen or Tulare to Porterville.
Seven years ago, Jackson said, the District Attorney's Office was trying to model the injunction after Los Angeles' injunctions, but the difficulty in defining the areas where gang members couldn't consort made it too difficult.
While authorities here are looking at what other communities have done to enjoin gangs, including Fresno County and Los Angeles, it's not clear how the finished injunctions might vary from those in other areas.
If a challenge is made to a Tulare County injunction, Jackson said public opinion on gangs may have an effect on the courts.
"I think, generally, the citizens are fed up with gang crimes, and I think the courts are trying to find any measure ... to curb gang conduct," he said.
As for the effectiveness of gang injunctions, Peltzer said there isn't a lot of hard data, and mostly he's heard anecdotal claims by law enforcement officials.
Indeed, Bill Little, city administrator for Orange Cove — where injunctions have been handed down against 110 members of two rival gangs since late January — said the effects there haven't been easy to gauge.
"On the one hand, the sheriff's [deputies] are making some arrests. But on the other hand, that's a fairly small number that I've heard so far," he said.
The Fresno County Sheriff's Department reports assaults and shootings have dropped by half in Orange Cove since January.
Little said the lack of clarity may be due to the fact there are other programs in that city geared to reducing gang crime that may be responsible for some of the changes.
But at the same time, authorities in Fresno are cracking down on gangs, and some of the affected gang members are moving out to rural areas, including Orange Cove, he said.
In Los Angeles, Mateljan said there has been at least a 10 percent drop in crimes in areas where gang members have injunctions against them.
"Off the top of my head, I can think of, for example, one of our injunctions in Hollywood where we've seen a 50 percent drop in crime since the injunctions," he said.
But Mateljan had no hard data to back that claim.
A 2005 report by criminologists at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Irvine, said there's scant research on the impact of civil gang injunctions.
Santa Barbara Police Chief Cam Sanchez has said that for now, at least, he will not pursue any gang injunctions in his city.
"He has some questions about the effectiveness of what it accomplishes," said Santa Barbara Police Lt. Paul McCaffrey. "And he has concerns of the labeling of a town that has a gang injunction. What does that mean to the town as a whole?"
Port Hueneme Mayor Maricela Morales, said she voted last year against allowing neighboring Oxnard to extend its second gang injunction into the southern part of her city in part because of the lack of data.
"On my part, I did extensive research on gang injunctions, and found the research was inconclusive and, if anything, leaned toward the gang injunctions not being very effective."
In fact, Morales said, she believes that more than anything the injunctions make people feel safer without delivering long-term results.
Besides the effectiveness issue, Morales said she worried that the injunctions would feed a hostile, aggressive, revenge mentality among residents.
Cheryl Maxson, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, was lead author of the UC Irvine/USC study that compared neighborhoods in San Bernardino before and after injunctions had been obtained against gangs in the area.
She said the injunctions had only "mild, positive" effects, at least in the short term.
"Only in fear of crime did the primary injunction area show a relative decrease," her report said. "Little evidence was found that immediate effects on residents translated into larger improvements in neighborhood quality..."
Maxson said in an interview that "certainly, the way we framed our conclusion was this should be one tool in a larger toolbox of gang intervention and prevention."
Visalia and Tulare County officials strongly stressed that the injunctions are just that, one of many tools they are using to battle gang problems here.
As for Maxson's study, it states that if gang injunctions "crack the window of opportunity for change in communities, then public officials must seize this moment to put in place social policies that might check the economic disadvantage and social inequities that spawn gangs in communities. If they succeed, it might get a little less crazy out there."
By David Castellon Staff writer
The reporter can be reached at dcastell@visalia.gannett.com
Visalia City Attorney Alex Peltzer, who is working with police to petition for the city's first gang injunction, based on the California nuisance code, legislative action and court rulings, said he also plans to be ready for a legal challenge. "We're preparing to be able to defend it," he said, though he added that he believes the legal basis for gang injunctions is solid.
Los Angeles, which got the first civil gang injunctions 20 years ago, has faced legal challenges. "All of our injunctions have been upheld," Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, said.
He said that he knows of no communities in California where gang injunctions have been successfully challenged in the courts.
In 2001, California's 4th District Court of Appeal upheld a trial court's ruling that gang injunctions are constitutional, rejecting a challenge to a 1997 attempt to get an injunction against 28 members of the Posole street gang in Oceanside.
Although that ruling was further appealed, the state Court of Appeal upheld it.
Still, success in the courtroom has not stopped questions about whether the injunctions violate civil liberties by interfering with the constitutionally guaranteed freedom to assemble.
Officials at the American Civil Liberties Union are among those critics, but the group would not provide anyone to be interviewed on the subject. Instead, officials cited a statement on the ACLU Web site that cited several objections to gang injunctions, including:
They aren't effective at curbing violence because they don't address the root causes of that violence.
Injunctions are more motivated by politics than solving community problems.
The injunctions give police too much leeway to harass and target "young men of color," even those who aren't gang members.
The practice imposes permanent, probation-like restrictions with no clear way out.
Don Gallian, assistant district attorney for Tulare County, said, "It does look like fairly solid law."
But, he added, when a law enforcement agency here does present prosecutors with its investigative findings to seek a gang injunction, his office will look at the case and the law carefully before going forward.
While it looks likely that Visalia police and Tulare County sheriff's investigators will seek gang injunctions in the coming months, a first for the county, authorities have looked into them before.
John Jackson, a criminal defense attorney in Visalia, said that seven years ago he was a Tulare County prosecutor who was directed to see if a gang injunction could be filed here.
"And I think our general consensus at the time [was] down in Los Angeles the gangs really are turf oriented. It's basically block by block," he said.
All the members of many Los Angeles gangs lived in the same blocks or neighborhoods with clear boundaries that made enforcing the injunctions fairly simple, Jackson said
"They're just as brutal here as in Los Angeles, but we're kind of different in that our gangs are not really differentiated block by block."
In fact, Jackson said, rival Sureño and Norteño gang members may live on the same block or members could be spread from Visalia to Goshen or Tulare to Porterville.
Seven years ago, Jackson said, the District Attorney's Office was trying to model the injunction after Los Angeles' injunctions, but the difficulty in defining the areas where gang members couldn't consort made it too difficult.
While authorities here are looking at what other communities have done to enjoin gangs, including Fresno County and Los Angeles, it's not clear how the finished injunctions might vary from those in other areas.
If a challenge is made to a Tulare County injunction, Jackson said public opinion on gangs may have an effect on the courts.
"I think, generally, the citizens are fed up with gang crimes, and I think the courts are trying to find any measure ... to curb gang conduct," he said.
As for the effectiveness of gang injunctions, Peltzer said there isn't a lot of hard data, and mostly he's heard anecdotal claims by law enforcement officials.
Indeed, Bill Little, city administrator for Orange Cove — where injunctions have been handed down against 110 members of two rival gangs since late January — said the effects there haven't been easy to gauge.
"On the one hand, the sheriff's [deputies] are making some arrests. But on the other hand, that's a fairly small number that I've heard so far," he said.
The Fresno County Sheriff's Department reports assaults and shootings have dropped by half in Orange Cove since January.
Little said the lack of clarity may be due to the fact there are other programs in that city geared to reducing gang crime that may be responsible for some of the changes.
But at the same time, authorities in Fresno are cracking down on gangs, and some of the affected gang members are moving out to rural areas, including Orange Cove, he said.
In Los Angeles, Mateljan said there has been at least a 10 percent drop in crimes in areas where gang members have injunctions against them.
"Off the top of my head, I can think of, for example, one of our injunctions in Hollywood where we've seen a 50 percent drop in crime since the injunctions," he said.
But Mateljan had no hard data to back that claim.
A 2005 report by criminologists at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Irvine, said there's scant research on the impact of civil gang injunctions.
Santa Barbara Police Chief Cam Sanchez has said that for now, at least, he will not pursue any gang injunctions in his city.
"He has some questions about the effectiveness of what it accomplishes," said Santa Barbara Police Lt. Paul McCaffrey. "And he has concerns of the labeling of a town that has a gang injunction. What does that mean to the town as a whole?"
Port Hueneme Mayor Maricela Morales, said she voted last year against allowing neighboring Oxnard to extend its second gang injunction into the southern part of her city in part because of the lack of data.
"On my part, I did extensive research on gang injunctions, and found the research was inconclusive and, if anything, leaned toward the gang injunctions not being very effective."
In fact, Morales said, she believes that more than anything the injunctions make people feel safer without delivering long-term results.
Besides the effectiveness issue, Morales said she worried that the injunctions would feed a hostile, aggressive, revenge mentality among residents.
Cheryl Maxson, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, was lead author of the UC Irvine/USC study that compared neighborhoods in San Bernardino before and after injunctions had been obtained against gangs in the area.
She said the injunctions had only "mild, positive" effects, at least in the short term.
"Only in fear of crime did the primary injunction area show a relative decrease," her report said. "Little evidence was found that immediate effects on residents translated into larger improvements in neighborhood quality..."
Maxson said in an interview that "certainly, the way we framed our conclusion was this should be one tool in a larger toolbox of gang intervention and prevention."
Visalia and Tulare County officials strongly stressed that the injunctions are just that, one of many tools they are using to battle gang problems here.
As for Maxson's study, it states that if gang injunctions "crack the window of opportunity for change in communities, then public officials must seize this moment to put in place social policies that might check the economic disadvantage and social inequities that spawn gangs in communities. If they succeed, it might get a little less crazy out there."
By David Castellon Staff writer
The reporter can be reached at dcastell@visalia.gannett.com
Friday, September 21, 2007
Gunfire locks down Exeter
Gang violence erupted in an Exeter residential neighborhood Thursday, forcing the lockdown of all Exeter Public Schools system campuses for about an hour, officials said.
Exeter police officers answered a call of gunshots fired in the 400 block of Chestnut Street about 1:30 p.m. One group of individuals was "just shooting wildly at other people down the street," Exeter Police Chief Cliff Bush said. No injuries were reported in what police believe was a gang-related incident. The shooters reportedly went inside a home. Police later arrested two males — an adult and a teenager — and two teenage girls. Bush asked Exeter school officials to lock down the city's campuses while the investigation took place. The lockdown took effect about 2:10 p.m. and was lifted about 3 p.m., said Diane Graziani-Orton, deputy superintendent of the school district.
Exeter Union High School, two elementary schools, a middle school, a continuation high school and an alternative-education program were shut down, Graziani-Orton said. While the lockdown was in effect, students remained in their classrooms, gates to school grounds were locked and no one was allowed access to any of the campuses. The lockdown of all the schools was ordered as a precaution, Bush said. Chestnut Street is a major thoroughfare for students walking to and from Exeter High, both elementary schools and the middle school. The male suspects, Horacio Lopez, 18, of Exeter and a 16-year-old boy, were booked on suspicion of felony reckless discharge of firearms, Bush said. More charges may be filed against them, he said, including gang enhancements. The girls, ages 17 and 16, were arrested on suspicion of delaying officers in the course of their duty. They could face gang enhancements as well, police said.
Two firearms and discharged shell casings were found inside the house, Bush said. He declined to provide more details.
By Michael Miyamoto Staff writer
The reporter can be reached at mmiyamoto@visalia.gannett.com.
Exeter police officers answered a call of gunshots fired in the 400 block of Chestnut Street about 1:30 p.m. One group of individuals was "just shooting wildly at other people down the street," Exeter Police Chief Cliff Bush said. No injuries were reported in what police believe was a gang-related incident. The shooters reportedly went inside a home. Police later arrested two males — an adult and a teenager — and two teenage girls. Bush asked Exeter school officials to lock down the city's campuses while the investigation took place. The lockdown took effect about 2:10 p.m. and was lifted about 3 p.m., said Diane Graziani-Orton, deputy superintendent of the school district.
Exeter Union High School, two elementary schools, a middle school, a continuation high school and an alternative-education program were shut down, Graziani-Orton said. While the lockdown was in effect, students remained in their classrooms, gates to school grounds were locked and no one was allowed access to any of the campuses. The lockdown of all the schools was ordered as a precaution, Bush said. Chestnut Street is a major thoroughfare for students walking to and from Exeter High, both elementary schools and the middle school. The male suspects, Horacio Lopez, 18, of Exeter and a 16-year-old boy, were booked on suspicion of felony reckless discharge of firearms, Bush said. More charges may be filed against them, he said, including gang enhancements. The girls, ages 17 and 16, were arrested on suspicion of delaying officers in the course of their duty. They could face gang enhancements as well, police said.
Two firearms and discharged shell casings were found inside the house, Bush said. He declined to provide more details.
By Michael Miyamoto Staff writer
The reporter can be reached at mmiyamoto@visalia.gannett.com.
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