Police Announce Motive in EPA Infant Homicide

Woman who lost baby in weekend shooting attends news conference announcing arrests in the case.

East Palo Alto police appear to have made quick work in the homicide investigation that left a two month old infant dead and his parents seriously injured.

The shooting happened early Sunday morning.

Police said they arrested one juvenile they said is responsible for the crime early Monday morning. Investigators said two teens were taken into custody during the investigation of the triple shooting.  One of those teens is a suspect in the shooting. The second man was arrested on a weapons charge. They said the second man was also a "person of interest" in the weekend shooting, but would not call him a suspect. Both were taken to juvenile hall in San Mateo County following a 5 a.m. arrest.

Police held a noon press conference where they announced the details in the investigation. The mother of infant attended that press conference.   

The infant and his parents were shot while leaving a baby shower in  the 400 block of Wisteria Drive at about 12:50 a.m., acting Capt. Jeff Liu  said. Lui said they jumped in their car immediately after the shooting and raced toward a hospital.  A police officer pulled them over on University Avenue in Palo Alto for speeding and discovered the family in distress.  They rushed the three shooting victims to Stanford hospital, but  doctors could not save the baby.

Police said there was also a three-year-old in the car who was not harmed.

 Acting police Captain Jeff Liu talked about the motive behind the shooting during the Monday news conference.  Liu said that the suspect was attacked in Redwood City on May 31 by a member Sureno gang. Lui said the suspect thought the person who attacked him was at the party in East Palo Alto.

"Our investigation tells us that the suspect that we've arrested saw two individuals on Wisteria he believed to have participated in the crime in Redwood City," Liu said.

Liu said police believe the teen and his cohort armed themselves and opened fire on their car.
Liu said the shooter was mistaken and shot the wrong person making the triple shooting an apparent case of mistaken identity.  The family who was hit is from Redwood City, but police said they were not part of any attack at the end of May. 

Witnesses described both suspects as young Latino men.

A sketch artist put together to sketches of the shooters on Sunday. Police said the person that was under arrest in the case looks similar to the man in the sketch at the bottom of this story who is wearing a knit cap.

Police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the killers.

Anyone with information about the triple shooting is encouraged to  call or send a text message to East Palo Alto police at (650) 409-6792.  Witnesses can also send tips to epa@tipnow.org.

Bay City News contributed to this report.

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