Sylmar Boy, 16, Slain in Mistake Attack : 4 Suspects Seized After Gunning Down Victim in Gang Revenge

A 16-year-old Sylmar boy was slain this morning in San Fernando by four assailants who mistakenly believed that he had killed a gang member who was a friend of theirs, authorities said.

The victim, Jimmie Torrez, was found at the intersection of Second Street and Hubbard Avenue about 12:30 a.m., said Deputy Chris Wahla of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The assailants had chased Torrez until he fell off the rear of a motorcycle, then beat and shot him in the back, authorities said.

Shortly after the shooting, three men and a teen-ager were arrested on suspicion of murder and were being held without bail at the San Fernando Jail. The three adults were identified as Albert Martinez, 20, Lake View Terrace, and Manuel Madrigal, 22, and Robert Flores, 23, both of Pacoima. Authorities said they also arrested a 16-year-old Pacoima boy.

“The victim was wrongly identified as a suspect in a gang killing,” San Fernando Police Sgt. Michael Harvey said. “The guys who chased him down thought he had killed a friend of theirs. But he was not a suspect.”

The earlier killing occurred several months ago in Pacoima, but other details were not available, Harvey said. He said the victim was a gang member and the four suspects in today’s slaying were associated with the gang but may not have been members.

Authorities said that today’s shooting occurred after the four suspected assailants, who were in a car, intentionally rear-ended a motorcycle on which Torrez rode with a friend and then began chasing them. The driver of the cycle was not identified.

In an effort to elude the car, the motorcycle driver went over a curb and onto a sidewalk, Wahla said. The impact threw his passenger from the motorcycle, and the four assailants stopped the car, got out and began punching and kicking him, Wahla said.

One of the suspects returned to the car, got a rifle and shot Torrez while he was on the ground, he said. The suspects then fled in their car. The victim, who had been shot in the back, was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he was pronounced dead.

Witnesses gave San Fernando police a description of the car, which officers stopped in the 600 block of Brand Boulevard, about half a mile from the shooting scene. A .22-caliber rifle believed used in the attack was recovered after police saw it thrown from the car before the arrests.

It was the first murder in San Fernando this year, authorities said.