Weekend S.D. Violence Leaves Six People Dead

At a homecoming party in Logan Heights. While lounging in Balboa Park. During a soured drug deal downtown and after a police chase in Sherman Heights. Killings that began on Friday set a torrid pace for weekend violence across the city.

In all, six are dead and at least nine more were injured during shootings and stabbings in San Diego, police said.

“We are seeing violent deaths occur in every setting,” sheriff’s Lt. John Tenwolde said, commenting on the weekend homicides in the city. “The motives aren’t always clear, but there does seem to be a connection between the bad economy and a general rise in street violence. . . . Rough times seem to be getting taken out on everyone.”

The homicides bring the year’s total to 88, police homicide Lt. John Welter said. The pace is slightly higher compared to the first six months of 1991, when 82 homicides were reported in the city. Last year, San Diego police investigated a record 167 murders and homicides.

In past years, the homicide rate has tended to accelerate during the summer, Welter said.

“It’s a time when the weather influences people to go outside,” Welter said, “Young people are out of school and the gang violence goes up. Drug activity goes up. Street crimes increase because of all the people visiting to the city.”

The weekend incidents include the fatal shooting Saturday of Hermeregildo Aguirre Villa, 37, of San Diego, by an officer. Villa was suspected of shooting and wounding another man moments before being stopped near 24th and Markets streets by motorcycle Officer Leonard Flake, police said.

Villa drew a handgun and threatened Flake before being shot at least twice in the chest, police said. Villa was pronounced dead at UC San Diego Medical Center.

Juan Edmundson, 30, whom Villa allegedly shot, was treated at UCSD for an arm wound.

About 2 a.m. Friday, Keku Tyron Moore, 22, of Paradise Hills was found wounded in the driver’s seat of a car that had crashed into a parked car. Witnesses told police that Moore was driving out of a parking lot in the 3100 block of Market Street when several shots sounded. Moore was shot at least twice in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

Detectives found a handgun and an unidentified drug in Moore’s car, Welter said.

On Saturday, a shooting at an all-night party in Logan Heights left one guest dead and two others wounded. Hector Santiago Montano, 33, a Mexican national living in Logan Heights, was killed at a party held for a sailor who returned home after six months at sea.

Julian Vasquez, 22, was wounded by gunshots to the shoulder and knee. Fredrico Vasquez, about 40, was in serious condition at UC San Diego Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the chest, police said.

In a stabbing death Sunday, the body of Martin Olmedo, 27, of Logan Heights was found on the stairs of an apartment building in the 1000 block of South 31st Street. Olmedo had been stabbed at least once in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene about noon.

About the same time, Bulmaro Noguez Sanchez, whose age was estimated at between 18 and 25, was shot to death while sitting on the grass at Marston Point in Balboa Park.

Police said the gunman, who was not identified, openly wielded a pistol as he walked about 100 yards toward Sanchez. Sanchez, of Ensenada, Mexico, was struck in the head and chest. He was pronounced dead about 4 p.m. at Mercy Hospital.

Shortly afterward, Jorge Guerra, 19, of San Diego was attacked on the sidewalk in the 2900 block of C Street in Golden Hill. Several witnesses told police a young man brandishing a gun walked up to Guerra about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, fired shots to his head and body, then ran away.

Late Monday, there were no suspects in the six killings, Welter said.

“We sure could use some more cops on the street,” Welter said.