Gangsters shoot up Salinas while city leaders vet peace strategy.

As much as Mayor Dennis Donohue wants to see his “city at peace,” the recent streak of drive by shootings show that Salinas is far from harmony. At least 18 people have been shot in the past two weeks. It appears police have calmed the crossfire with extra patrols and help from the Monterey County Gang Task Force. But increased enforcement may only silence the gunshots until the next hot, holiday weekend. Meanwhile, the real solution – an effective citywide gang prevention and intervention strategy – is several months away.

While violence periodically flares up in Salinas, this Labor Day weekend was especially horrendous, with multiple people getting gunned down on the same day. On Sept. 3 two men and three women were shot at the corner of Hebbron Avenue and Jefferson Street. Police say the victims in this case don’t appear to be gang members or criminals, and can’t explain why the victims were targeted.

Although police won’t specify which gangs committed the shootings, it’s clear that rival gangs are largely responsible for the crime surge.

About midnight on Sept. 3 a man called out a gang slogan before firing six rounds at a couple sitting in a parked van at the 700 block of Williams Road. Later that night, two Latino gang members were shot near Central Park, according to police.

Unlike most gang-related shootings this year, where the violence was Latino-on-Latino, at least one recent shooting seemed to target African-American gang members. On Sept. 1 three African-Americans were shot in front of a known gang house on Cabrillo Avenue. Early the next morning, three suspects described as black males fired shots into a home on the 300 block of Soledad Street. Salinas Police Cmdr. Kelly McMillin says investigators haven’t pinned down whether there is a clash between Latino and African-American gangs. McMillin says police are also investigating whether there is a link between the crimes and a fight that broke out between suspected Latino and African-American gang members after a Salinas High School football game on Aug. 31. In this incident police arrested a 16-year-old boy for possessing a loaded, semi-automatic handgun.

As is typical with gang-related crimes, police have limited information to work from because witnesses and victims are afraid to identify suspects. This is part of the mentality that Community Safety Director Trevor Iida wants to change.

Iida, who started his new role in March, is at the forefront of a multi-faceted, peace initiative. Donohue and Iida have already enlisted the help of religious leaders, grandmothers and various organizations to root out gangs. But Salinas’ gang violence is still something many residents take for granted.   

“We have a passive acceptance of the gang problem in this community,” Iida says. “We need to get beyond that where it is completely, completely unacceptable and we’ll do everything possible to prevent that.”

Getting Salinas to unite against gang violence will not be simple. There are as many as 3,000 gang members and associates in the city, authorities estimate. For thousands of residents, having a friend or relative that is in a gang is a fact of life. The city – particularly east Salinas and pockets throughout town – is also ripe with the conditions that harbor gangs: poverty, overcrowding, single parent households, lack of recreation and open space.

But under the mayor’s leadership, the City is laying the groundwork for a long-term strategy to prevent kids from becoming street thugs. Iida says the gang problem cannot be solved by cops and politicians alone. “This is not just a police department problem or a city hall problem,” Iida says. “This is a community issue.”