Police in San Francisco have arrested a member of the Vagos gang
on charges that he killed the president of the San Jose chapter of
the Hells Angels.
Police in San Francisco have arrested a member of the Vagos gang on charges that he killed the president of the San Jose chapter of the Hells Angels.
A University of California San Francisco police sergeant spotted Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, 53, of San Jose at 8:20 p.m. Thursday and took him into custody, where police in Sparks, Nev. will come to retrieve him, according to UCSF Police Chief Pamela Roskowski.
Gonzalez is wanted in connection with the homicide of Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, 51, the iconic president of the motorcycle club in San Jose, who also worked for the city’s Department of Transportation. Pettirgrew was shot in the back four times last Friday at John Ascuaga’s Nugget casino in Sparks.
Roskowski said Gonzalez was spotted in a rented 2011 Chevrolet Malibu parked near Treat Street, a block away from campus police Mission Center’s headquarters.
Sgt. John Guttierez of the campus police department was on routine patrol when he saw Gonzalez acting “suspiciously,” Roskowski said. Apparently, Gonzalez was leaning over the steering wheel and “shuffling around” in the driver’s seat of a car with Washington state license plates.
The sergeant asked for identification, and when he ran Gonzalez’s name, realized he was wanted in connection with the Hells Angels homicide.
“We’re extremely proud of our actions,” Roskowski said. “Sgt. Gutierrez is an outstanding police officer.”
Roskowski said she her department was working with Sparks police to move Gonzalez there.
During last week’s casino shoot-out in Sparks, two other Vagos were wounded and a third was shot in the stomach the next day by a gunman in a passing car a few blocks from the Nugget.
Cesar Villagrana, 36, of Gilroy, a Hells Angels member who was with Pettigrew when he was shot, is charged on three felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon illegally and discharging a firearm within a structure.
He did not enter a plea at his arraignment Thursday in Sparks Justice Court. Police booked Cesar Villagrana, 36, at 7:49 a.m. Saturday into the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office on three felony counts including assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a stolen firearm – a 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun, according to WCS Deputy Armando Avina.
Villagrana’s offenses also include carrying a concealed weapon and aiming a firearm at another person, two charges Avina said are gross misdemeanors. An officer in the Sparks Police Department Booking Division confirmed Villagrana has not made bail.
Police say Villagrana was videotaped shooting into the crowd during the disruption between rival motorcycle gangs the Hells Angels and the Vagos on Friday. Footage, however, has not been released and officials have not verified if any of his rounds hit the three victims.
