Two Mesa teenagers were accused of shooting a rival gang member and injuring three other people in retaliation for “snitching,” according to court documents.
About 6 p.m. Sept. 22, officers found three injured men and a teen girl near McKellips Road and Center Street, and all four were taken to the hospital, earlier reports found.
Charging documents shed light on the events leading up to the shooting.
Jonathan Valladares Mojica and Mark Cortez Garcia, both 19, who were charged on Sept. 25 at their initial appearance in Maricopa County Superior Court, were accused of being members of the South Side Locos gang and targeting a member of a rival gang for contacting police for previous incidents.
Mesa teens surveilled rival gang member, police say
One of the injured people told police they noticed a Jeep
circling the area of their home when they were leaving for the store, according to court documents
Two people in a truck were cut off and forced to stop by the same Jeep. They told police that Garcia was the driver, and Mojica was in the passenger seat, court documents said.
Mojica told the two people to get out of the truck and yelled, “What’s up? We’re 8th Ave and we’re SSL,” according to court documents.
Mojica pulled out a handgun from his waistband and pointed at the two people after a verbal argument, court documents said.
Two other people came out of the home when they learned the pair in the truck were being threatened with a gun, police wrote.
“A brief fight” occurred and then Mojica began “shooting at the victims, striking all four of them,” according to the charging document.
A neighbor’s camera footage caught the altercation between Mojica, Garcia and the people who were shot, police said. It also captured the two men fleeing the scene, police said.
One of the four injured was a 14-year-old girl who was a sibling of one of the men shot, according to Dawn Sauer, a Maricopa County prosecutor.
Mesa investigators also noted one of the people shot was a suspected member of the Doble street gang. Police wrote in charging documents that there was “an active rivalry” between the two gangs in the city that has escalated to violent crimes “multiple times in the past.”
The injured victims named Garcia, as they knew him personally for a long time, they told police. The four also pointed out Mojica in a photo lineup, court documents said.
Garcia turned himself in and gave detectives Mojica’s phone number, according to court documents.
Judge: High risk of witness intimidation
Mojica was booked into a Maricopa County jail on four counts of aggravated assault, assisting a criminal street gang, a gang-related threat offense and unlawful discharge of a firearm, court records showed.
Sauer urged a $150,000 cash-only bond, stating Mojica was “an extreme danger for the community.”
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jane McLaughlin ordered him to be held on a $250,000 secured bond.
She stated there was an "extremely high risk of witness intimidation or retaliation.”
Garcia was booked on four counts of facilitation to commit aggravated assault, assisting a criminal street gang and a gang-related threat offense, according to court records.
He was given a $150,000 secured bond in part because McLaughlin noted he had been cooperative with the investigation.
The pair were due back in court on Oct. 1.
Republic reporter Rey Covarrubias Jr. contributed to this article.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rival gang dispute led to Mesa shooting that injured 4, police say
