2 Men Charged in 4 Pomona Killings

The mystery surrounding last month’s slayings of six Pomona residents began to unravel Thursday when police revealed that they had arrested two gang members and charged them with murder in connection with four of the shootings.

For several weeks since an alleged gang rampage took the lives of apparently unconnected residents, police reported that they had no suspects, no motives and no leads. But the breakthrough arrests in the case offered the grieving city only partial comfort, its relief dampened by the fact that police believe at least one suspect is still at large.

Michael Robert Guzman, 18, was arrested early Saturday morning after police staked out a car in which Guzman was parked in his gang’s turf in South Pomona. When police approached the car, a minor inside fired a shot at an officer, but missed. Police arrested both youths.

An alleged accomplice in the killings, Richard Arthur Aguirre, 19, was arrested by his parole officer two days later at a relative’s house. Aguirre was on parole for car theft, Pomona Police Capt. James Harding said.

Police delayed releasing information about the arrest for fear that any leak would scare off the third suspect, Police Chief Richard Shaurette said. They made the arrests public Thursday only after filing the charges.

Both teenagers were booked on four counts of murder in connection with the four killings that occurred within hours of one another and terrified the city.

Michael Reed Jr., 15, was gunned down by three men as he tried to run into his bedroom.

Within hours of that shooting, Stephanie Michelle Contreras, 19, Fernando Madrigal, 34, and Armando Valle, 33, were killed in Valle’s home on 7th Street.

Guzman was also charged, with a fifth count of discharging a weapon, for allegedly shooting at a youth Jan. 12.

The two gang members may also be linked to the shooting death of Edgar Lopez, 16, and Benjamin Rivera, 15, whose bodies were found in a vacant lot about 24 hours before the other homicides, Shaurette said.

Little is known about the alleged killers, but witnesses’ accounts and evidence left at the scenes of all six homicides strongly link the teenagers to the killings, Harding said.

After word of the arrests reached the news media Thursday afternoon, camera crews descended upon Valle’s house, shining their lights on the dead man’s 15-year-old son as the youth bicycled up the street.

Showing Armando Valle Jr. a picture of the men police believe killed his father, reporters asked the youth for his reaction to the arrest. The son responded in a whisper: “I don’t know what to say.”

“He was my brother,” said Rafael Valle, who was also at the house. Looking skyward he added, “Somebody up there, they’ll take care of them.

None of the deaths are believed to be “paybacks,” or attributable to gang warfare, but police are investigating the possibility that Rivera and Lopez may have been gang affiliates, Shaurette said.

“Trying to establish some motive in a case like this is really difficult because you’ve got so many possibilities,” Shaurette said. “We’ve heard everything from Mexican Mafia to accidents.”

Police said they knew more about the case than they were willing to reveal.

“It does all come together at the end,” Harding said.

When asked how the victims, who ranged in age from 15 to 34, relate to one another and to the suspects, Mayor Edward Cortez said: “A lot of people are going to be surprised.”

Cortez, who said he is asked daily about the killings, said he hopes the arrest gives residents a renewed feeling of safety.

“At least with these two in custody, it will have a calming, reassuring effect throughout the entire community,” Cortez said. “There was a cloud hanging over us. This will now bring some light some brightness to our community again.”