An 18-year-old man sought in the fatal El Cerrito shooting was in San Diego Central Jail Thursday after being arrested by Murrieta police in Riverside County.
Joseph Mehlenbacher faces murder charges in the Dec. 26 slaying of Kenneth Confer, 28, of San Diego, said San Diego police Lt. Andra Brown.
At 11:03 p.m. that night, San Diego police received a 911 call regarding a possible shooting outside a residence in the 5700 block of El Cajon Boulevard, Brown said.
“When patrol officers arrived on scene, they located a man on a second-floor landing with an apparent gunshot wound to his head,” she said. “The officers moved the man to a safe location and began CPR.”
The victim eventually was transported to a local hospital for treatment. But he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
True cooperation between different departments, across county lines. Both working hard to keep their communities safe. https://t.co/iL4QW3Nrnf
— Murrieta Police Department (@MurrietaPD) December 31, 2020
Investigators from the San Diego Police Homicide Unit were called to the scene. During
the course of the investigation, detectives learned the victim had been in an altercation
with a white male suspect who fled the scene, Brown said.
On Wednesday, Mehlenbacher was found in the city of Murrieta and arrested without incident.
The 6-foot, 175-pound suspect was booked into Central Jail at 1:24 p.m. Thursday on $3 million bail, records show.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the SDPD Homicide Unit at (619)
531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.