USA: Gangs Mistake Tourists For Rival Gang Bangers

[RYP]

i am still waiting for "Talibs ambush Amish For Control of U.S."

Santa Cruz gang members suspected of attacking Sonoma County tourists arrested

By Jennifer Squires
Posted: 05/24/2010 07:51:06 PM PDT

SANTA CRUZ - More than six weeks after gang members mistook tourists, one wearing a red 49ers jersey, for rivals and beat them up in Beach Flats, police Monday announced the arrests of four suspected gang members who allegedly incited the violence.
The fight happened on the 200 block of Riverside Avenue around 9:25 p.m. on April 8 when five gang members approached the tourists and asked where they were from, according to Santa Cruz police.
The tourists, from Sonoma County, denied having gang affiliation, but the gang members went after them anyway, police reported.
"The guy was just simply a 49ers fan and these guys confronted him, assumed he was gang member," Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Rick Martinez said. "It's an example of how our gang members will attack people often under false pretenses."
The gang members, some armed with knives, beat up three of the four tourists. The fight broke up as police arrived and the gangsters fled.
Three of the tourists - two Santa Rosa men, ages 19 and 20, and an 18-year-old woman from Rohnert Park - were hurt in the fight. They needed stitches and a couple of the woman's teeth were broken, according to police.
However, none of the injuries were life-threatening and no one was stabbed.
"It looks like we just got lucky," Martinez said. "They mostly got hit, punched and kicked."
The Police Department's downtown unit reviewed surveillance videos, conducted probation searches on
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convicted gang members and served search warrants before they arrested the alleged attackers earlier this month.
"It took some time to put the whole case together," Martinez said.
The last arrest was made Saturday afternoon when Keith Diaz Smutzer, 18, was arrested at the Santa Cruz police station. Smuzter, a county resident, was jailed on suspicion of assault, gang participation, fighting and violating his probation. He is being held in County Jail on $100,000 bail.
Wednesday, county resident Adriana Garibay Figueroa was jailed on suspicion of battery, fighting in public and gang participation, according to County Jail records. She was arrested at the Santa Cruz police station, booked into jail and later released in lieu of $50,000 bail, according to jail records.
Jesus Villa, 23, of Santa Cruz was arrested April 22 at an Ocean Street fast-food restaurant on suspicion of crimes including assault, gang participation, possessing a switchblade knife and being a felon in possession of a gun, according to jail records. Martinez said police found a gun in Villa's home during one of the searches. He remained behind bars Monday evening.
Angel Silva, 29, also of Santa Cruz was arrested on suspicion of assault, gang participation and fighting. Monday, it wasn't clear when he had been arrested. He was not in custody, according to jail records.
Villa and Silva have been arrested multiple times for gang crimes, and Smutzer also is a documented gang member, according to police.
One of the gang members involved in the fight has not been identified and remains at-large, Martinez said.