Authorities on Wednesday publicly named two men fatally shot over the weekend in Barrio Logan, while their alleged assailant appeared in court.
Patrol officers responding to a report of gunfire found Junior Alastre, 23, and Osnaider Silveira, 28, wounded in the 1700 block of Newton Avenue shortly after 9:30 p.m. Saturday, according to San Diego police.
Silveira died at the scene, Lt. Lou Maggi said. Paramedics took Alastre to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
The victims are believed to have recently immigrated to the U.S. from Venezuela, according to police.
Investigators determined that following the gunfire, the assailant got into a 2012 Kia Forte belonging to one of the victims, Maggi said. Noticing someone in the back seat, the gunman ordered her out, then drove off.
The next day, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies patrolling in Rosemead spotted the stolen Kia, which was occupied by National City resident Guillermo David Gonzalez.
After San Diego homicide detectives interrogated him, Gonzalez, 23, was booked into San Diego Central Jail, where he remains without bail.
Gonzalez is charged with two counts of murder, gun allegations and special circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders, meaning if he is convicted, he faces either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
At Gonzalez’s arraignment on Wednesday, he pleaded not guilty.
A prosecutor alleged Alastre, Silveira and the wife of one of the men were in two separate vehicles parked near one another when Gonzalez approached.
Deputy District Attorney Oscar Hagstrom said Gonzalez first shot one of the victims five times, before turning his gun on the second man and shooting him “roughly 17 times.”
That second victim was in the driver’s seat of his vehicle and his wife was a passenger.
Hagstrom said Gonzalez got into that car and the victim’s wife “had to beg for her life to be let out of the car.”
When he was arrested, L.A. County sheriff’s deputies searched the car and found a handgun registered to Gonzalez and casings matching those left at the shooting scene, according to Hagstrom.
The prosecutor also said deputies found “what appeared to be some evidence of blood on his shoes.”
Police have disclosed no suspected motive for the shooting.
Updated 3:55 p.m. Sept. 18, 2024
