Surveillance video captures portion of King City deadly shooting of teen
By Felix Cortez
Click here for updates on this story
KING CITY, Calif. (KSBW) — urveillance video obtained by Action News 8 captures the brutality of a King City shooting Friday night that left a 17-year-old dead and five people in custody accused of carrying out the murder.
The video shows three persons walking down the 500 block of 3rd Street. They eventually walk out of view, and then more than a dozen gunshots can be heard, and the men are again captured on video, this time running from the scene.
Within hours, five people were in custody: 20-year-old Adrian Juarez along with four juveniles, the youngest just 15 years old.
Hernandez was shot on 3rd street near Ulre,y right across the street from a Catholic church.
“It was really unexpected, you know, just Friday night and all the shots, this poor man, and it was shocking to hear what happened,” said German Rodriguez, pastor for the Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist.
The brutal murder came just three days before the 1-year mark of the worst mass shooting in Monterey County history, when 11 people were shot at a King City birthday party on March 3, 2024. Four people died.
“With the mass shooting I buried three of the victims and that’s been one of my experiences, you know, to have to bury these poor people and talk with the families and see the pain in their hearts, you know, of what they’re going through so it’s been very hard for everybody,” said pastor Rodriguez.
“Unfortunately, you know, it’s more and more common we see kids as young as 12 running around, being recruited into the gang lifestyle,” said King City police chief, James Hunt.
The victim was identified Monday as Christian Hernandez, and police say all his accused killers are from Greenfield and may have gone to King City looking for rival gangsters.
Hernandez, who was simply riding his bike, may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“It’s been a little bit more common over the last, what year, we’ve noticed that several of our shootings have been carried out by Norteno gang members that have come into town from Greenfield,” said Hunt.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
