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assault battery felony Homicide Wrongful Death

17 Year Old Shot For Not Joining Gang

Phoenix Mother Blames Gang for Her Son Being Gunned Down

A Phoenix mother is upset and claimed that her son was “gunned down” for his refusal to join a local gang. Dershawn Stuard was sadly murdered and his cousin was also shot during a baseketball game on last Thursday. The shooting happened at a park near the 106th Avenue and Camelback Road. The police authorities with the Phoenix Police Department identified the shooter suspect as seventeen year old, Jodon Martinez. The police have stated that Jodon Martinez is indeed a documented gang member. He is considered armed and dangerous.

Dershawn’s mother wants everyone to remember her son as a loving, compassionate, funny young father. She recalls a time five years ago, a Phoenix gang had tried to recruit her youngest sons while they were at a park. The young boys were still in elementary school at the time that the gang tried to recruit them. After refusing to join the gang, the boys then became a target for the alleged shooter, Martinez and his family.

Dershawn’s Mother’s Statement:

They chased my kids home with a gun, actually opened fire once.

Apparently the family had tried to escape the gang and the threats by moving around the city four time within the five years. She even moved the kids to a different school in hopes to escape the gang violence. To this day, she still lives in fear. Even though she has filed several police reports, she’s still terrified since her son’s murderer is still on the run. She hopes that she isn’t identified.

Mother’s Statement About Her Fear of the Gang:

We tried to do it right, we tried and tried and tried. And no help, no help. Now that’s the result, I have to bury my son and my grandson has to grow up without a father.

She claims that she will not feel any peace until her son’s shooter is caught and then prosecuted for what he did.

Continued Statement:

He may not be able to walk around freely, but he’s awake, he’s alive, he’s still breathing. I don’t have that anymore, he stole that from my son for no reason.

Police describe Martinez as “Hispanic male who is about 5 ft 7 in. tall and weighs 140 pounds”. If anyone has any information on this suspect, please call (602)262-6141 or the Silent Witness program at (480) WITNESS.

Source: https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/phoenix-man-shot-for-refusing-to-join-gang-according-to-victims-mother

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Phoenix, AZ 85008

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Categories
Personal Injury Wrongful Death

19 Year Old Arrested for Kidnapping and Killing a Man

Phoenix Police Arrest 19 Year Old for Kidnapping and Killing a Man

On Thursday the Phoenix Police arrested an 19 year old young man for kidnapping another man for two days and then tried to shoot him in the face with a shotgun.

The suspect that was arrested was nineteen year old Noe “Quiet” Silva. He was booked on charges of attempted first-degree murder, as well as kidnapping and managing/organizing a street gang, and possession of a weapon by a prohibited person.

According to the court documents, a man had told the police that the young man (Silva) and another young man that went by “sleepy” had kidnapped him near Glendale and 17th avenues.

The police believe that Silva is a gang member. The man said that at one point the other kidnapper had put a shotgun in his mouth and then pulled the trigger. Luckily the gun did not fire though.

The man escaped by prying open a window in the apartment, the window was however nailed shut from the outside so it must have been a pretty hard task.

The man stayed in the nearby alley ways. That is when Silva found him and then shot him in the face with the shotgun. Luckily, the man survived the shot. The man was able to identify the men in a photo lineup.

Before the kidnapping the man said that Silva had been “taxing him“. He believed that Silva’s gang would be acting soon.

Taxing

is when a gang threatens someone with force for financial gain.

The kidnappers made the man turn his phone, hats, and other personal items over to them.

Silva’s sentencing

He was convicted for theft of means of transportation in 2009 while he was still a juvenile. The previous conviction prohibits him from having a weapon. A judge has ordered Silva be held in jail on a $750,000 bond.

Source: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/05/02/police-phoenix-gang-member-kidnapped-shot-man-face/8628039/