Crime & Safety
Several Arrested In RivCo Vehicle-To-Vehicle Shooting
Two men and four juveniles are in custody on suspicion of participating in a vehicle to vehicle shooting in Thermal.
THERMAL, CA — Two men and four juveniles are in custody on suspicion of participating in a vehicle to vehicle shooting in Thermal, authorities said Saturday.
The shooting was reported at 3:09 p.m. on Saturday Oct. 1 on the 63000 block of Landon Lane. Witnesses told deputies from the Thermal Station of the Riverside County Sheriffs' Department that the suspect vehicle was an early 2000 model Chevrolet pickup, said Sgt. Porfirio Rubio.
While deputies were investigating the initial shooting, the department's dispatch center received a call regarding an exchange of gunfire between the occupants of a blue Chevrolet pickup and the occupants of a red four-door sedan in the parking lot of a local market on the 65000 block of Harrison Street.
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Responding deputies located the sedan at Avenue 66 and Van Buren Street after it crashed into a utility pole and its occupants fled on foot, Rubio said. After searching the immediate area deputies located and arrested Michael Vega, 18, and Landon Torres, 18, both of Thermal, as well as two juvenile males.
The dispatch center received a call at 3:58 p.m. the same day regarding a 15-year old boy and a 16-year old boy who arrived at a hospital with gunshot wounds and investigators determined they were the occupants of the blue Chevrolet pickup involved in the shooting.
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On Friday, members of the Southern Coachella Valley Community Services District Team and the Coachella Community Action Team served a weapons- related search warrant in the 76000 block of Pierce Street and arrested the two boys for attempted murder. They were booked at Indio Juvenile Hall.
And on Tuesday, Oct. 4, members of the task force took a 13-year-old boy who was also determined to be an occupant of the blue Chevrolet pickup into custody, Rubio said.
Vega and Torres were booked at the John Benoit Detention Center for attempted murder and another 16-year old boy was booked there on similar charges.
Anyone with additional information regarding this case was asked to call the Thermal Station at 760-272-8367.
—City News Service
