Holly MatkinGoshen, CA – Two Norteno gang members were arrested on Friday in connection with the horrific “cartel-style executions” of six people and police released video of a 16-year-old mother running for her life with her 10-month-old baby she was holding just before both were murdered (video below).
Police said the arrests came after a series of raids across California and a predawn shootout, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The two Norteno gang members arrested in connection with the Jan. 16 murders have been identified as 35-year-old Angel “Nanu” Uriarte and 25-year-old Noah David Beard.
Investigators said Beard is the one who brutally gunned down 16-year-old Alissa Parraz as she tried to flee the home with her 10-month-old son, Nycholas, in her arms, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the evidence revealed the gunman stood over them and shot them both in their heads, CNN reported.
“I know for a fact that this young lady was running for her life,” the sheriff confirmed, calling the attack a “cartel-like execution.”
He said the attack was “methodical, well-planned-out, and executed quickly,” KMPH reported.
The other four victims have been identified as 19-year-old Marcos Parraz, 52-year-old Eladio Parraz, 49-year-old Jennifer Analla, and 72-year-old Rosa Parraz, the Associated Press reported.
Rosa Parraz, Alissa Parraz’s grandmother, was shot while on her knees next to her bed, investigators said.
Investigators said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents got into a shootout with Uriarte in the early-morning hours of Feb. 3, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Uriarte was wounded during the gun battle, but he underwent surgery and is expected to survive.
The deadly attack occurred at a residence located in the 6800-block of Harvest Road in the small farming community of Goshen shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 16, according to FOX News.
Street corner in the unincorporated community of Goshen where 16 year old Alissa Parraz fled her killers desperate to save her 10 month old son. Both executed here with gunshots to the head. Nortenos gang members are the “baby killers” says @TulareSheriff & in custody @LAmag pic.twitter.com/8vy8zhi5vl
— Michele McPhee (@MicheleMcPhee) February 5, 2023
Officials played a 911 call and showed grainy surveillance footage from the night of the massacre during a news conference announcing the suspects’ arrests, the Los Angeles Times reported.
A woman who survived the shooting by hiding in a trailer placed a call to 911 as the horrific attack unfolded.
“They shot my boyfriend. They keep shooting outside,” she says. “I don’t know if they are still here. I’m scared. … Please hurry, please. I don’t know where they are now… they’re still shooting.”
The frantic woman told the dispatcher the gunmen were “coming back” and that she could hear someone screaming, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“They’re shooting in the house,” she said in the recording.
Deputies arrived at the residence within seven minutes of the first 911 call being placed, but the shooters managed to carry out the attack and escape before deputies got to the scene, Sheriff Boudreaux said.
The security footage showed Alissa Parraz running across a driveway with her baby in her arms, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The route out to the street was blocked by a locked chain-link gate, so the young mother lifted her son over a section of wood fence, setting him on top of an object on the other side.
She then scrambled over the chain-link gate.
The video showed a man chasing after them and raising a gun with his right hand just before the footage was stopped.
Sheriff Boudreaux said the girl and her baby were both shot in the back of their heads, the Los Angeles Times reported.
They were the last of the victims to be executed.
The woman who called 911 was among three people who survived the massacre by hiding from the gunmen, CNN reported.
One of the survivors said he got down onto the floor after hearing the gunfire and laid with his feet pressed against the door to keep it shut, according to Sheriff Boudreaux.
One of the gunmen rattled the doorknob but ultimately walked off, he said.
“This family was targeted by cold-blooded killers,” Sheriff Boudreaux said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
He said the horrific shooting is among the worst incidents he has encountered during his nearly four decades as a law enforcement officer, KMPH reported.
“I’ve been with the sheriff’s office for 36 years, in the world that we live in as far as investigating and working for our victims is an ugly world,” he said. “This is one of the most egregious that I have seen. However, I have seen many very similar to it. What I have not seen is the very apparent murder of a 10-month-old child for no reason.”
The sheriff said two members of the Parraz family were members of the Sureno gang, and that the small farming community of Goshen is considered to be rival Norteno territory, according to the paper.
With the assistance of ATF laboratories in Maryland, police were able use DNA analysis to help track the suspects down, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Sheriff Boudreaux said Beard and Uriarte had been under constant surveillance since Jan. 23.
“We knew every move they were making,” the sheriff said, adding that the public was never placed at risk during that period. “We had them under our wing where we wanted them.”
Investigators also carried out a series of raids in multiple locations as part of the investigation, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The multiagency operation – which was dubbed “Operation Nightmare” – involved executing search warrants at four state prisons and three other locations in Visalia and Goshen.
Sixteen prison inmates connected to the Nuestra Familia prison gang were targeted in the prison raids, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Although law enforcement was familiar with the residence due to the frequent criminal activity taking place there, Sheriff Boudreaux noted that not all of the murdered victims were involved in illegal endeavors, CNN reported.
“Let me make this very clear: Not all these people in this home are gang members. And not all these people in this home are drug dealers,” he said. “The 16-year-old female is an innocent victim. The grandmother inside appears to be an innocent victim. And definitely this 10-month-old child is an innocent victim.”
According to Sheriff Boudreaux, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) deputies had gone to the same residence on Jan. 3 to conduct a parole compliance check on someone living there and located multiple shell casings outside the house, CNN reported.
The residents refused to allow the deputies to search the home, so they came back with a search warrant.
They allegedly found firearms, methamphetamine, body armor, and marijuana during the search and ended up arresting Eladio Parraz on charges of being a felon in possession of ammunition, firearms, and a controlled substance, CNN reported.
Eladio Parraz was released from jail on bail four days later.
Although Eladio Parraz was among the victims killed in the attack, Sheriff Boudreaux said shortly after the shooting that he was not the “initial intended target,” the Associated Press reported.
The sheriff would not comment further on the issue.
Uriarte and Beard have been charged with six counts of murder and a multitude of special allegations including committing murders to further the activities of a criminal street gang and multiple murders, the Los Angeles Times reported.
They could face the death penalty if they are convicted, according to CNN.
Beard also has a pending case out of Visalia from October of 2021 for cocaine and gun charges.
He was previously convicted of aggravated robbery in Kansas, and was a fugitive wanted on a probation violation when he was arrested in Visalia in 2021, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Beard was extradited back to Kansas from California that November, but it is unknown when he was released by Kansas authorities.
He was previously arrested in 2016 in Tulare County on charges of obstructing a deputy, driving a stolen car, and hit-and-run, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Prosecutors ultimately dropped all charges other than the hit-and-run, and Beard was sentenced to just 20 days in jail after pleading no contest to that offense.
Tulare County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Stuart Anderson said Uriarte was charged with assaulting a person with a handgun in connection with a gang-related incident in 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison for that offense, but was released after serving approximately five years.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below:
🎥 @TulareSheriff released Horrifying surveillance video from the Goshen Massacre. It shows the young mother running from the gunmen. As she ran towards the gate,she had to place the baby over the fence then jump over another. A gunmen followed them and killed them in the street. pic.twitter.com/ODR1oSdjYk
— Olen Hogenson KMPH (@olenhogenson) February 3, 2023
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