Man Arrested in Shooting Is Killer Who Fled Custody

An 18-year-old gang member arrested in connection with a drive-by shooting in Palmdale on Friday had escaped last month from juvenile custody after being convicted of murdering a Sylmar man, authorities said Thursday.

Andrew Perez of Sylmar was arrested shortly before midnight Wednesday at a Lancaster motel, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective John Kalita said. Perez is one of three men believed to have fired numerous rounds Friday night at two cars they mistakenly believed carried rival gang members, Kalita said.

The shooting occurred after a fistfight in a Lancaster parking lot in which members of Perez’s gang were beaten, Kalita said.

None Seriously Hurt

None of the three victims were seriously injured in the shooting, Kalita said. One was treated at Palmdale Hospital Medical Center for scrapes to his face from flying glass, and the others did not seek medical treatment, he said.

Perez had escaped from the custody of a juvenile probation officer during a doctor’s visit at Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar on July 11, Kalita said. He had been convicted of the murder of Juan Silva, 19, of Sylmar in March, and was being detained at Sylmar Juvenile Hall before being sent to the California Youth Authority to serve his sentence, said Los Angeles Police Detective Jay St. John.

Perez shot Silva in the head while the two were arguing about which of them was dealing the best cocaine, St. John said. Perez had been previously convicted of several narcotics trafficking charges, he said.

Perez was a juvenile when he killed Silva, but he had turned 18 four days before Friday night’s shooting and will be tried as an adult in the case, Kalita said.

Perez is being held in lieu of $15,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned today on six counts of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of shooting at an occupied vehicle, Kalita said.

Two of the other suspects in Friday night’s shooting--Freddy Ruiz, 18, of Quartz Hill and Thomas Merrick, 19, of Lancaster--were arrested a short time after the shooting. Jason Marmon, 18, of Quartz Hill, who allegedly drove the car from which the men fired, was arrested Monday. He is not believed to have fired any of the shots, Kalita said.