Homicides in Modesto were down in 2020 before tripling. How it compared to previous years
The homicide rate in Modesto was low in the first half of 2020, with only six homicides in the first seven months and several stretches of more than a month without any killings.
“It is odd to have a big spread ... to go for almost two months without one, and we were hoping to see” the trend continue, said Modesto Police Department homicide Sgt. Tom Fara.
But in the last five months of 2020, the count more than tripled, bringing the total number of homicides for the year to 20 and accounting for half of all homicides countywide. Six were in December, including four since Dec. 14.
It isn’t the drop in homicides Fara had hoped for; it’s slightly higher than the five-year average of 18 for the city.
Countywide, there were 40 homicides, which is right at the five-year average.
The deadliest months were December and September, each with seven homicides, including three on one day in September.
On Sept. 17, Leonard Zuniga, 24, was shot near Robertson Road Park in Modesto at about 2:20 a.m. At 6 a.m., Enrique Becerra, 67, was shot on T Street in Newman. And at 8:30 p.m., 70-year-old Anna Doran was assaulted, allegedly by her daughter, inside her southeast Modesto home. She died from blunt force injuries a few days later. Arrests have been made in all three cases.
There were no homicides in the month of July, and one in April.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department had the first homicide of the year, a woman who was shot by a man along McHenry Avenue in the Del Rio area, on Jan. 19.
But it was not the start of an upward trend for the Department, which has jurisdiction in unincorporated areas of the county as well as contract cities Riverbank, Patterson, Hughson and Waterford. It has seen a decrease in homicides for the third consecutive year.
There were no homicides within the department’s contract cities and just nine within its unincorporated areas in 2020. This compares to a total of 11 homicides in 2019, 14 in 2018 and 22 in 2017.
The department’s homicide sergeant declined to be interviewed for this story.
Its spokesman, Sgt. Luke Schwartz, said in an email, “I would attribute the immediate downward trends of our homicide rates to the hard work, dedication and sacrifice of our sworn personnel out on the streets.”
He said deputies are good at getting to know their beats and engaging with the people who live in them, which leads to “critical pieces of information needed to keep tabs on the criminal element.”
Which department ends up investigating a homicide and counting it on its total for the year sometimes comes down to just a few blocks or even which side of the street it occurred.
Six of Modesto Police Department’s homicides in south and west Modesto were within four blocks of the Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdiction.
Streets like Amador Avenue in south Modesto are split between county and city.
Eric Rogelio, 27, was driving west on Amador in November when someone drove up next to him and fired into his vehicle, Fara said. Had he driven two more blocks to the west, it would have been in the county. The case remains unsolved.
There were also more homicides than normal in small cities that usually have none or only a few.
Newman and Oakdale, which most years don’t have any homicides, each had one. There were three in Ceres, which usually averages one a year.
Turlock had six homicides, following a year without any, and a record high of nine the year before, making 2020’s total for the city just above the five-year average of five homicides a year.
Two of the three multiple-victim killings this year happened in Turlock and Ceres, and both involved children.
Amythest Rochelle Cortez, 27, and her unborn child died in a shooting on 20th Century Boulevard in Turlock on Aug. 4. The case remains unsolved.
On June 15, Jang Singh, 55 allegedly shot and killed his wife, Manpreet Kaur, 34, and her son, Gurman Singh, 12, while they slept in their apartment on Roeding Road in Ceres.
The other double homicide was in Modesto on Oct. 16.
Authorities said Brandon Wheeler, 40 and Emilia Natale, 29, were innocent bystanders who were shot by a man who was fleeing the scene after firing multiple rounds into a home a few yards from theirs on Semple Street.
The armed suspect was shot by police when he pointed a gun at them as they tried to apprehend him. He survived.
It was also in Modesto that the other three child homicides occurred this year.
Seven-year-old David Turner suffered a severe brain injury in September and died a few days later. His mother and her boyfriend have been charged with child abuse causing death.
On Dec. 1, 20-month-old Natalie Castro was found dead inside an apartment on Standiford Avenue. Police said her grandfather, who had custody of her, was in a medical facility out of town when she was found and that the child had obvious signs of neglect. He has been charged with second-degree murder.
And in one of the last homicides of the year, a 14-year-old girl was fatally shot while riding in a vehicle in west Modesto in the early morning hours after Christmas.
The last homicide of the year was an officer-involved shooting on Dec. 29. The man who died was one of three people fatally shot by law enforcement in Stanislaus County in 2020.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 8:53 AM.
