Monitoring Desk
CALIFORNIA: Two men have been nabbed – one of them after an armed battle with police – for the “cartel-style execution” in California in January of a family, including a teen mother and her baby.
Angel Uriarte, 35, was injured in a shootout with police as he was arrested and was having surgery, said officials.
Noah David Beard, 25, was arrested without incident. Their alleged motive behind the murder remains unclear.
The six victims were murdered on 16 January in the rural town of Goshen.
Both suspected men were arrested early on Friday and face six counts of murder and several other crimes.
“I am happy we were able to arrest these two men and put them behind bars,” said Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux. He added that Mr Uriarte was expected to survive a fire exchange with federal agents.
California ‘Cartel-Style’ murder
He added that the suspects and family members of the victims were known to have a long history of gang violence.
Four generations of a family were killed in the attack in the San Joaquin Valley.
Local authorities had offered a $10,000 (£8,297) reward for information to arrest the suspects.
Mr Boudreaux said the search was known as “Operation Nightmare,” which involved around-the-clock surveillance of the suspected persons and several search warrants, some of which included prisoners’ cells in state prisons.
The county sheriff told that one of the victims, teenage mother Elyssa Parraz, had reunited with her 10-month-old baby just days earlier, Nycholas Parraz, who had been residing in foster care.
The grandmother and great-grandmother of the baby were also among the victims, family and police say.
At a press conference in January, Mr Boudreaux said the baby and mother appeared to have been fleeing the scene. He said forensic evidence showed the murderer had stood over the victims and fired at their heads from above.
He maintained a few survivors remained at the “horrific” crime scene when officers arrived.
