15-year-old charged with 1st degree murder; 2nd suspect at large
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YAKIMA, Wash. -- A 15-year-old boy is charged with first-degree murder in connection with Tuesday's fatal downtown shooting, police said. The shots rang out at S. 4th Street and Chestnut Avenue shortly before 6:00 p.m.
Detectives said 26-year-old Octavio Rangel of Yakima was shot in the head. He died at the scene.
Police said two people fled on foot after the shooting. One is still at large. They said there is no clear motive, but it is believed to be gang-related.
The 15-year-old suspect was booked into the juvenile detention center for murder in the first degree.
Neighbors and witnesses gathered around the bloody scene; many in disbelief someone was murdered just outside their door step.
"All of a sudden I heard a pop, pop, pop and then I came over here to see if whoever is ok and I saw the guy on the ground," Donovan Kipling said.
Police told KIMA the altercation started at the nearby bus stop. It quickly escalated into a shooting.
Some neighbors tried to help, but it was too late.
"The nurse came over to help him and instantly he was gone," Kipling said.
Officers barricaded the scene for blocks and combed the area. K9 units led them to an apartment building near N. 6th street. Officers held that apartment on lock down for hours.
"A lot of activity immediately took place right after the shooting, but right now we're following up on some information we have to hopefully quickly identify the suspect," said Yakima Police Captain Rod Light.
Neighbors are coming to terms with the sudden and tragic loss of life in their own backyard.
"That could be somebody's son, or it's their dad, or whoever you know or somebody's uncle. It's unbelievable," Kipling said.
Kid hasn't even made it to court yet - he hasn't been "charged" with anything to this point! He has been arrested and placed in detention pending his preliminary appearance this afternoon. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT KIMA - horrible reporting!!!
15 years old he'll probably spend the rest of his life behind bars and for what over an argument gone bad kids need to realize taking someones life it's pretty much the end for them sooner or later someone will retaliate and escalate with innocent victims getting hurt or worse killed
I grew up in L.A. where gangs are like an enigma some members are 4th generation gangbangers the fools cant even leave their own neighborhood how stupid is that i never joined or affiliated my self with no gangs i knew better and it sad to say this kid done he will never experience his birthday like normal folks behind bars waiting for your parents to visit and put money on his books it's sad all the way around .
My opinion is all these kids need is a good intervention like a trip to the morgue or a week spent behind bars in county or better yet state prison let the inmates show them what it's really like behind bars .......My condolences to the man's family
@PROTECT THE KIDS Those interventions have been tried and are unsuccessful! The real answer lies within the community - everyone wants to post replies on here and expect law enforcement to "clean up the streets." WE (as the community) let this problem get out of hand...now WE should take back our streets the ol' fashioned way!
Economic circumstances aside.. it doesn't justify what happened. Charge the young hoodlum as an adult, try him, and if fond guilty.... lock him away for decades, if not the rest of his life... so he can tell his buddies how tough he was when he was a free manÂ
@KevinRyak Amen Brother!
hey @kimatv how do our gun deaths and gun violence compare to cities our size across the country?Â
@GlennSnyder @kimatv Who cares Hippy?
@GlennSnyder...I can give you a quick comparison of cities with less then 5,000-10,000 difference in population for a measurement. Flint, Michigan which has roughly same poopulation as Yakima, had over 50 plus more murders than Yakima last year. Richmond,CA another city with roughly the same numbers in population had over 25 murders last year. Depends if your comparing cities in similar size with economic woes and issues, or are you looking to compare cities that dont have the same social economic problems.
Exactly what are those "social economic woes"