Gang cops sweeping the streets for info

Officers go straight to source for latest word on community scourge

By ROSALIO AHUMADA
rahumada@modbee.com

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About 20 police cars with flashing red and blue lights clogged Bystrum Road, a narrow street just east of South Ninth Street and Highway 99 in a tough, unincorporated area between Ceres and Modesto.

It was about 11:30 p.m. Friday, and the multiagency law enforcement effort organized to solve four recent gang shootings in Modesto and suppress the violence had converged on this small street between Sonora and Latimer avenues.

About 40 cops from various agencies got out of their cars and crowded around a small home on Bystrum where suspected gang members were having a party.

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With help of information gathered on the street, the cops crashed the party and detained about 15 people, handcuffing and lining them up with their backs to the police cars.

A sheriff's helicopter circled, its spotlight aimed at the house.

As a group of officers searched the home, gang investigators took turns interviewing those who were detained.

The investigators asked for their name, age, weight, height, physical features such as tattoos, home address, where they work, if they have served time in prison or jail, if they use drugs, what drugs they use, what gang they belong to, where they hang out, when they joined the gang and other questions.

That's how investigators gain crucial intelligence on gangs. They talk to gang members.

"Most people think we don't talk to gang members, like we wouldn't," said Sgt. Jeramy Young, a supervisor with the Modesto Police Street Crimes Unit. "We actually talk to gang members. That's how we do it."

But it's dangerous work on any night. On this night, however, the risk was higher.

Three days earlier, two men were shot as they walked a dog in Modesto's airport neighborhood. A 51-year-old man died, and a 29-year-old man was shot in the leg.

The week before, the Street Crimes Unit was investigating two drive-by shootings on the same night in west Modesto that injured a toddler and a 15-year-old Modesto boy and killed his 14-year-old friend from San Jose.

Three weeks ago today, a 48-year-old Long Beach man visiting friends in west Modesto for the Cambodian new year was killed by stray gunfire from a gang confrontation.

Some suspects at large

The possibility of retaliation or the escalation of violence increases when multiple gang shootings occur in a short time frame, Young said.

"The potential for (gang members) to be armed is increased," Young said as he drove a marked patrol unit through west Modesto. "They'll have a gun on them to protect themselves. They're just as likely to use their weapons on us as they would on other gang members."

And some believed to be involved in the recent shootings were on the loose as of Saturday.

Modesto police arrested four suspects in connection with the Long Beach man's death, but investigators are looking for a fifth suspect.

A suspect believed by detectives to be the shooter in the airport neighborhood death has not been found. And investigators have not identified suspects in the two drive-by shootings that occurred in west Modesto a week ago Friday.

"The main thing is that we make sure we all go home at the end of the shift," Young said about his colleagues. "We're fighting this fight every day, and we need the help from the community."

Numerous agencies have been working the streets, including the Modesto police, Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, Ceres police, Stanislaus County Probation Department, state parole agents and members of the Central Valley Gang Impact Task Force.