David Montero, 40, of San Jacinto, was found at a local park in the 500 block of East Main Street after deputies received reports of an assault. Upon arrival around 10 p.m., deputies found Montero suffering from traumatic injuries, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.

He was taken to a local hospital, where he remained hospitalized until Wednesday when he was pronounced dead, officials said.

The sheriff’s department is investigating the incident as a homicide. Due to the investigation, no other information was made available.

As authorities work to find the suspect or suspects, the public is urged to contact the sheriff’s department with any information they may have on the case. Central Homicide Master Investigator R. Deanne can be reached at 951-235–7382 and Investigator J. Newby can be reached at 951-347–0679.

Anonymous tips can be submitted online here.

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Undeterred, the Murrieta Police Department announced plans this week to continue sharing photos of suspects on its social media accounts — with what appear to be Lego heads substituted for the suspects’ faces.

As an example, the department shared on social media a photo of five suspects in a lineup, with the yellow cylinders obscuring their identities.

“The Murrieta Police Department prides itself in its transparency with the community, but also honors everyone’s rights & protections as afforded by law; even suspects,” according to the post. “In order to share what is happening in Murrieta, we chose to cover the faces of suspects to protect their identity while still aligning with the new law.”

Murrieta Police Lt. Jeremy Durran confirmed via email that the post was no joke.

“In the interest of keeping our residents updated on public safety events in our community while, at the same time, respecting the new regulations, we’ve been obscuring the faces of suspects in our social media posts in various ways,” he wrote. “We’ve been doing this for the past couple of years, and it’s nothing new to us.”

The Legislature passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1475 in 2021 to prohibit local law enforcement from publishing a mug shot on social media platforms if the individual is accused of a nonviolent crime, unless it would aid in the capture of the suspect; a judge orders the release of the photo; or there is an existing threat to others. Before the prohibition took effect, the state expanded it last year by enacting AB 994, which requires mug shots for a suspect — any suspect — to be removed from social media within 14 days unless special circumstances exist.

At least some criminal-justice experts aren’t amused by Murrieta’s tactic.

Peter Hanink, a professor of sociology and criminology at Cal Poly Pomona, questioned the need to publish a mug shot or a line-up photo of someone who’s been arrested but hasn’t been convicted or even indicted by a grand jury.

He warned that publishing such pictures could damage someone’s reputation.

“Murrieta is saying that they’re publishing the photos out of need for transparency, but if you already have a description of the crime that occurred, what’s the need for a photograph that has no relevant information?” he asked. “The photo obscures the face and then it’s just a body, so what’s the need for the photo?”

To hide the people’s faces in this way, Hanink said, instead of simply blurring out their heads or using black boxes, appears to be a way to dehumanize those who have been arrested.

“The effect is comical, that this is something to mock and take lightly,” he said. “They could’ve easily blurred out the faces and that would’ve achieved the same purpose. To use these other things, these non-human placeholders, it’s part of a long tradition of humiliating and public shaming people who are arrested.”

Hanink cited an example of Joe Arpaio, who served as Maricopa County sheriff in Arizona for 24 years, requiring prisoners in the since-shuttered outdoor “Tent City” jail to wear pink underwear and sleep on pink sheets.

“He changed it to pink because he thought it would emasculate them,” Hanink added.

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File # L221320042

Details:

In August of 2022, the Lake Elsinore Station Special Enforcement Team received information regarding narcotic activity at a residence in the 32000 Block of Wesley Street in the city of Wildomar. The subsequent investigation culminated in the service of a search warrant at the residence. During the service of the search warrant, 112 grams of methamphetamine were located along with 40 M-30 pills, 25 ml of Fentanyl, 3 grams of heroin, and 20 firearms. Numerous motorcycles were located on the property several of which had been reported stolen and were in various stages of disassembly. Steven Fritz, a 71-year-old resident of Wildomar, and Teresa Odonnell, a 56-year-old resident of Wildomar, are the primary occupants of the residence and were arrested for suspected possession of a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm, maintaining a residence for the use and sale of drugs, and Chop Shop Operation. Tony Goff, a 38-year-old resident of Wildomar, was arrested for an outstanding felony warrant and suspected sales of illegal drugs. Michael Kuderman, a 51-year-old resident of Widlomar, was also arrested for suspected sales of illegal drugs.

As a reminder, “Community Policing” involves partnerships between law enforcement and community members. Business owners and residents are encouraged to report criminal activity directly to law enforcement by calling Sheriff’s Dispatch at (951) 776-1099, or by calling 911 if the matter is an emergency.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — It’s the big question looming over one of this year’s bloodiest mass shootings: Who opened fire at a crowded house party in Rochester, New York, on the last weekend of summer, killing two teenagers and wounding 14 other people?

Nearly a month a fter gunshots rang out just after midnight on Sept. 19, there have been no arrests, no rewards offered and little word from authorities on where the investigation stands. If the police have suspects in mind, they haven’t said so publicly. Nor have they told people who lost loved ones or were wounded themselves.

“I’m sure they’ll figure something out, but I don’t really know what information they have or anything else — what evidence they found on the scene,” said Emar Bouie, a 23-year-old recent college graduate who still struggles with movement in the arm where he was shot.

Rochester, a post-industrial city of about 206,000 people on the shores of Lake Erie, is still reeling from the revelation last month that police officers killed a Black man, Daniel Prude, in March by pressing him into the ground until he stopped breathing. City officials stoked outrage by staying quiet about the death for months.

Prude’s death exacerbated residents’ mistrust of the police department. The shooting — which ended the lives of Jaquayla Young and Jarvis Alexander, both 19 — has only added to the city’s collective pain.

“In terms of the city healing, we’re not there yet,” said Marlowe Washington, the pastor of Seneca United Methodist Church. “We’re nowhere near any form of healing and I don’t know how we’re going to get there yet.”

A police spokesperson, Jacqueline Shuman, said the shooting investigation is progressing and that detectives “are still in the process of sorting through the voluminous evidence.”

Shuman said the police department is working on the case with the county’s crime lab and prosecutors, as well as federal agencies including the U.S. attorney’s office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which typically helps local police trace guns.

The party was supposed to be a small gathering, but people from two other nearby parties went there in the early morning and an argument broke out. Three or four people opened fire, and police found more than 40 bullet casings at the scene. The wounded and the dead were all between the ages of 17 and 23.

Young, who was attending Monroe Community College, was captain of her high school’s cheerleading team and a member of the track team. Alexander, a sophomore at Alfred University, was on his high school’s football and track teams and won a state championship in the 4×100-meter relay.

“What happened to my son is just devastating. It doesn’t even seem real at this point,” said Alexander’s father, James Alexander. “He touched the heart of so many people and that’s really what I’m trying to absorb right now. Because his legacy is just amazing.”

Since the shooting, the city has been rocked further by Mayor Lovely Warren’s indictment on state campaign finance fraud charges, related to her last reelection campaign. The city council recently issued subpoenas in its investigation into Prude’s death. Protesters have continued to demonstrate in the city’s streets.

On Wednesday, there was another big development: Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan, who retired from the police department in 2009 as a lieutenant, took over as the city’s interim police chief. In addition to the Herculean chore of reforming a force with a tattered reputation, she’ll be tasked with solving a shooting that has been described in local media as one of the most violent crimes in the city’s history.

Speaking at her swearing-in ceremony, she told residents: “We rise and fall together.”

Washington, in a telephone interview, called on the police department to be more transparent about the investigation and suggested that the city offer a reward to give reluctant witnesses an extra incentive to come forward.

“We need the city to step this up more to say we are not going to let this sit down, this will not be a cold or pre-cold case. We are going to up the ante,” Washington said.

James Alexander said he’s been so focused on mourning his son and supporting his family that he hasn’t had time to dwell on the investigation.

“There’s a lot of disaster and turmoil going on in the city of Rochester and something needs to be done about it, but as far as what’s going on in the police department and those things, I put my trust in the law,” said Alexander. “I have no objections to the way they do their job.”

Bouie said he too has faith — and patience.

“They’ll figure out something, whether it takes a year from now,” he said.

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