Four held in gang-linked Yakima killings

YAKIMA – Four people are being held in what police described as a gang-related killing that apparently stemmed from a case of mistaken identity based on a Washington State sweatshirt.

In the killing of a man and his 3-year-old daughter, blamed by authorities on another gang, one man remained in custody, a second man described as a material witness was questioned and released and two others – including the man believed to be the shooter – remained at large, police said.

Following a tip on the fatal shooting Wednesday night of Octavio Abundiz Jr., 21, officers questioned Victor Manuel “Chucky” Valencia, 19, and his answers led to the arrest late Thursday of Arturo “Chilango” Juarez-Garcia, 20, Juan Carlos Guzman, 19, and a 16-year-old boy, police Capt. Jeffrey Schneider said.

Bail was set at $5 million each on Guzman and Juarez-Garcia, described by investigators as the shooter. Valencia was held as a material witness with bail set at $500,000 and the boy in juvenile detention. Schneider said detectives also seized a .38-caliber or .357 magnum pistol.

Investigators blamed a misunderstanding over color for the death of Abundiz, a restaurant cook and dishwasher. He was shot at an intersection while riding in a Jeep.

Abundiz and his friends were not in any gang, but one was wearing red, unintentionally raising the hackles of members of the Soreno gang, whose color is blue and who were cruising in rival territory, police said.

“They saw these guys, they saw somebody was wearing a red Washington State sweatshirt, and assumed they were in a rival gang,” Schneider said Friday, “and that is the motive, as pathetic as that is.”