Three males in their late teens were arrested on Sunday, Aug. 24 after firing multiple shots at a group of people.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department received a radio call at 1:06 am on this day informing them that shots had been fired in the 1800 block of 16th Street.
The officers rushed to the scene and spoke with a pair of witnesses who had seen the suspects’ vehicle, namely a dark colored Toyota Camry.
The officers also learned that the suspects had shot multiple times at a group of people who had been standing in front of a building in the area.
The witnesses described the suspects to the officers and part of the description included the (fairly) unique detail that one of the suspects had a tattoo across his forehead.
The officers did not find any victims of the shooting at the scene, but as they were conducting their investigation, they received a radio update that informed them that something suspicious was happening in the area of the 3100 block of Santa Monica Boulevard.
The report stated that a witness had seen a vehicle matching the description of the suspect Toyota Camry and that the vehicle had been occupied by three individuals matching the description of the suspects, including a man with a tattoo across his forehead.
The witness added that the subjects had exited the vehicle, and that the man with the tattooed forehead had been fumbling with something in the trunk of the car whilst another of the suspects had said, “Hey put it away, put it away.” The vehicle had left the area before the officers arrived.
However, a short time later, two other patrol officers spotted the suspect car in the area of 27th Street and Kansas Avenue and initiated a traffic stop.
The officers then detained the suspects and conducted a follow-up field investigation that pointed to one of these suspects as being the alleged shooter.
These three men (two aged 19 years who were both denied bail and one aged 17 years who was granted bail of $290,000) were arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit a crime.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
