A fight broke out tonight at the end of an otherwise calm,
tearful candle-lit vigil held to honor the life of Larry Martinez,
who was shot multiple times and killed in the middle of the day one
block from the Gilroy Police Department.
The scuffle highlighted that tensions are running high after
Gilroy’s second gang-related killing in six weeks. The situation is
so bad that that another person could be killed in retaliation next
week, people at the vigil said, and city officials fear an all-out
gang war.
A fight broke out tonight at the end of an otherwise calm, tearful candle-lit vigil held to honor the life of Larry Martinez, who was shot multiple times and killed in the middle of the day one block from the Gilroy Police Department.
The scuffle highlighted that tensions are running high after Gilroy’s second gang-related killing in six weeks. The situation is so bad that that another person could be killed in retaliation next week, people at the vigil said, and city officials fear an all-out gang war.
Police are still searching for the three Hispanic male suspects who gunned down Martinez, 18, as he walked along Sixth Street between Eigleberry and Church streets about 1:20 p.m. Tuesday. Many friends and family members believed the attack was in response to a gang-related stabbing along the 7200 block of Monterey Road last Friday evening, but pressure has been building among street gangs since another mid-day shooting in north Gilroy in September.
“We had been worried about retaliation after the last homicide and last stabbing,” Police Chief Denise Turner said Wednesday afternoon before the vigil. “I’m very concerned that we’re in the face of a gang war.”
Detectives and all available personnel are working over time to find the suspects and prevent further violence, Turner said, but people at the vigil said they had heard a retaliatory killing will happen Monday if police do not make any arrests.
For others too consumed with grief to think about spilling more blood, they spent Wednesday placing flowers and small crucifixes at the base of a phone pole outside the house where Martinez died. More than 45 adults and about a dozen children showed up for the 5 p.m. vigil, led by Martinez’s family and friends.
“Everyone got their vests on?” Joann Duran, Martinez’s grandmother, said to lighten the mood before she began praying.
“We know Junior’s in heaven, and we need to light that path for him,” Duran said as the candlelit faces of her family and friends stared off into the distance. “Bless all these people for having Junior in their hearts,” she added before imploring those around her to leave vengeance to God.
But as mourners said good-bye and Martinez’s mother, Monica Fernandez, pulled up to witness the outpouring of support, a fight began.
The crowd swirled in confusion. Young men began darting in all directions, dodging cars and shouting at one another as they ran down different streets. Women screamed. Some grabbed their children and rushed them to cars, and others ran into houses, slamming iron-gate doors behind them.
Within minutes, nearly all the candles had flickered out, and four police cars pulled onto the scene, canvassing the bushes and dark yards with flood lights. But no one remained.
Before the scuffle broke out, Rey Palacios held a candle under his chin and told those around him that such “senseless” behavior needs to stop.
“I told Larry a few days ago, ‘You have a lot of potential. You’re just living too fast,'” Palacios said. “I told him I didn’t want to speak at his funeral, and here it is.”
Palacios grew up across the street from Martinez on Rogers Lane, and he said he learned to turn away from violence and drugs by looking to “Big Larry,” Martinez’s father. The elder Martinez embraced Christianity and showed Palacios how a man can turn his life around at any time, something he said he has stuck with and hoped other young men in Gilroy would do, too.
“I had never seen anyone who changed their life around while they lived,” Palacios said as his voice quivered. He added that the idea of God hating sin but loving the sinner was how he felt about hating gangs but loving the gangsters.
“If you sit down and talk to these guys, they are intelligent young men who could be doctors and lawyers,” Palacios said. “I have hope for them.”
Christina Duran, Joann Duran’s aunt, said everyone makes mistakes as teenagers and that Martinez’s future appeared promising despite some of his past decisions.
“Is this what the youth of Gilroy wants its families to go through,” Christina Duran said. “Don’t let this happen to your families.”
Family and friends of Martinez repeated Wednesday that the young man had planned to turn his life around and begin working for his family’s construction firm, partially thanks to his mother who, friends said, has never stopped working for others.
“There is nobody as hard working and as compassionate as she is,” Christina Duran said of Fernandez, who raised more children than just her own and who one lady said would give anyone the shirt off her back.
That especially includes her son, whose body lay face-down beneath a yellow tarp Tuesday afternoon, only a piece of red clothing jutting out.
“I just want to say that I love my son, Junior,” Fernandez said Tuesday after driving 66 miles from her home in Dos Palos. “I don’t know what I’ll do. I crave to hold him one more time and can’t because someone took my son from me. He was an 18-year-old boy who was going to start a new job this week. He had everything going for him. He had brothers and sisters who loved him and a mother and step-father who had hopes of him joining their family.”
Martinez’s shooting was this year’s third killing. The first was a late-night stabbing death in downtown, for which a man is currently under arrest, and the second was a mid-day September shooting in north Gilroy.
Residents and city officials say the most recent slaying is further evidence that Gilroy is becoming a more dangerous and violent place to live. Some even said they were not surprised by the violence.
“Surprised? No, not at all,” Ken Carman said Tuesday. The 20-year resident said he heard the shots from inside his home near the intersection of 10th and Rosanna streets.
“Twenty years ago nothing like this would happen,” Carman said. “I’m scared to death. I won’t walk anymore. I just drive.”
City Councilman Perry Woodward also said Martinez’s death did not surprise him, but stopping more like his is another matter entirely, he said.
“Violence leads to more violence in these situations. It’s a hard cycle to end,” Woodward said. “We are seeing and are likely going to continue to see retaliation on top of retaliation, and this happened back in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.”
For Woodward, Martinez’s death drives home the point that police can ill afford to take any more officers off the street. Budget cuts in June froze 11.5 positions, including four uniformed officers, and a layoff plan the council is considering includes cutting three sworn officers who were planning to retire, a probation officer, three community service officers and a secondary officer who runs arrestees to jail, thus freeing up beat officers to patrol the streets.
“We’re already down to our core service level,” Woodward said. “I’m not advocating a reconsideration of the layoffs … but we need to step up enforcement and be proactive.”
To read the previous story with pictures from the scene, click here.
To raise money for Martinez’s funeral, family and friends will hold a car wash at Dutchman’s Pizza, 6940 Chestnut St., beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday. The family has also set up a bank account for donations at Bank of the West, 7865 Monterey St., under the name Monica Fernandez.
Parties with information are encouraged to contact Detective Devlin at (408) 846-0350. Parties wishing to remain anonymous can call the police tip line at (408) 846-0330.
