February 6, 2007

Shootings in West San Jose on Campbell border alarm residents and police

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

There appears to be an increase in crime in the Campbell and West San Jose areas with three separate shootings leaving two people dead, increased tagging and graffiti and at least 20 expensive bicycles stolen off apartment balconies in just over two months.

The most serious incidents have been three shootings, which have all occurred in West San Jose, near the Campbell border. Two happened last December and the other on Jan. 27 all within the same area.

The first occurred on Dec. 14. Police were called to the 4000 block of Hamilton Avenue near San Tomas Aquino Road. Two men, age 19 and 27 had been shot and were taken to the hospital in critical condition. The 19-year-old victim later died. Police have not determined the motive.

The second shooting occurred Dec. 26, in the 4200 block of Hamilton Avenue, just two blocks from the first shooting. In that case, investigators found another man shot, but he survived, according to San Jose police. Apparently the two shooting were unrelated.

In the most recent shooting, police found two men down in the 1300 block of San Tomas Aquino Park-way, which runs parallel to San Tomas Expressway. One victim was dead at the scene; the second victim was sent to the hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Spokesman Nick Muyo from the San Jose Police Department declined to release any specific details. “It’s a homicide case. We stay close-lipped by design. We are looking into a gang aspect and to see if there are leads that take it into another city,” Muyo said.

If that’s the case, he said, then San Jose police will work with Campbell police on the investigation. He added he could not give other information in case it would harm the investigation.

The shootings, and increased graffiti occurrences in and near that same area caused several neighborhood associations to schedule meetings with officers from the Campbell and San Jose police departments. The Blackford Neighborhood Action coalition met with San Jose police officer Karl Micotti on Jan. 4. On Jan. 10, officers from San Jose and Campbell attended a meeting with the San Tomas West Neighborhood Association, which included residents of Campbell and San Jose.

The latter association is currently in the process of trying to coordinate a second meeting regarding the shootings for February. The group will send out fliers in advance of the meeting. Otherwise, they will meet at the regular time on March 14.

Gang activity appears to ebb and flow, according to Campbell Mayor Dan Furtado, San Jose District 1 City Council member Pete Constant and Campbell Police Captain Dave Dehaan.

“Personally, I think when a gang causes one disturbance and then the other gang retaliates then usually the violence subsides,” Furtado said.

Right now, it appears that gang activity is getting worse, he said. In the late 80s and early 90s, there was more gang activity, he said, but the police have recently noted a larger gang presence through increased tattoos and marks on clothing and the use of specific colors of clothing.

Campbell is actively working on several levels to limit gang problems, he said. First the city’s police force is working with San Jose and Los Gatos police. Campbell has liaisons with both to work on common issues and problems. One of the important programs is with the San Jose Mayor’s Gang Task Force, which is renowned throughout the country for its successful three-pronged approach of intervention, mediation and suppression.

In addition, Campbell has received grants from the state to increase police training for gangs, Furtado said. The city’s police officers also are working with the Santa Clara County Special Enforcement Task force to address gang issues and gang violence.

Captain Dehaan added that there appears to be an increase in the number of gang members and their associates throughout western San Jose, Campbell and surrounding areas.

While most people would blame the gang problems on bigger cities such as San Jose, he said there are pockets of gangs all over.

“It’s tragic because it’s so senseless,” he said of the violence, “with gang versus gang. Generally, these are just self-initiated rivalries. There are turf wars and arbitrary shootings like the recent ones in San Jose.”

Dehaan said those types of rivalries are hard to suppress. “The only effective means of preventing retaliatory violence is to prevent youth from participating in the first place.” And, he said that’s hard to do because of today’s permissive youth culture and because gangs offer young people a sense of identity. That’s where working with San Jose’s task force helps.

“While preventing gang activity is a challenge, it can be done, but it needs to come from a number of places,” he said, including families, schools, churches and other social institutions.”

Last year, Campbell police targeted a specific neighborhood for gang suppression, said Dehaan. Two officers worked in that area arresting and citing gang members and contacting parents. The program worked and the police “took back a neighborhood that had started to fall into gang territory.”

Campbell police have also worked with city officials to add significant enhancements to penalties for gang related crimes and have began documenting gang activities so that if someone is arrested for gang activities, their punishments are enhanced. “Sometimes keeping these individuals off the streets is the best method,” Dehaan said.

Often, he said, the first awareness is through gang IDs, typically signs of graffiti on kids’ hats or backpacks, the colors red or blue, the numbers 408, 13 and 14 or their Roman numerals. All indicate gang affiliations. Parents, he said, need to be aware of such graffiti and need to ask their children what numbers or symbols on clothing or school items means because there is such a strong element of gang culture in young people and throughout schools.

There are two types of graffiti, he added. Scrawling on cars, fences or homes could be just a tagger participating in malicious mischief. However, “sometimes officers don’t know if it’s tagging culture or gangs, and sometimes the two are related,” Dehaan said.

Campbell police try to take photos of the graffiti and then get it cleaned up as quickly as possible, said Dehaan and Furtado. “We paint over it as quickly as possible within 24 to 48 hours,” said Furtado. “We ask people who’ve been graffiti victims on private property to get rid of it as soon as possible too, either by using the city contractor or painting over it themselves. Generally that’s been successful for us and it may slow it down because the taggers get tired of seeing their work covered up so quickly,” he said.

Dehaan says that all tagging is cause for concern. “It’s unsettling because it’s damage to [private and public] property. If it’s gang graffiti then they are marking their turf and it has to be confronted. No matter what it should be reported immediately so it doesn’t encourage more.”

Other crimes go hand in hand with increased gang presence, he said, including burglaries and property crimes. “It wouldn’t surprise me that the string of bike thefts (see related story, below) has some link to drugs,” he said.

San Jose is also using gang awareness training and pushing for more education on the west side, according to Councilman Constant. A veteran policeman, who worked on San Jose’s force on the west side for 6 years of his 14-year career, Constant reiterated the comments from Furtado and Dehan.

“Things come in waves. Looking at it [the two recent murders] in a broader contest, violence over the past several years has been on a decline. But the different incidents in relatively close proximity are of great concern. That was my [police] beat,” he told the Times.

Constant’s concern is two pronged, first, obviously catching the suspect or suspects in the two murders and secondly he wonders if these crimes are a signal of an upswing in crime. And, the crimes hit close to home for Constant since the council member says he lives close to the scene of the most recent shooting.

Constant is pleased that San Jose has a number of programs designed to eliminate gangs and gang violence, which all have proven very effective. Besides the Mayor’s Gang Task Force, there is also SAVE, which was started during Mayor Susan Hammer’s administration. It brings together a combination of elected leaders from non-profits and schools. In addition, San Jose has the Safe School Campus Initiative, Neighborhood Watch, School Liaison Offices and Crime Stoppers programs. The latter offers several different programs including public outreach for anonymous tips.

To report information regarding any of the above-mentioned crimes you may call Crime Stoppers anonymously at (408) 947-STOP.