Salinas mourns 14-year-old Alisal High student killed in shooting
By Felix Cortez
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SALINAS, Calif. (KSBW) — A Salinas community and school district are grieving after another student in the Salinas Union High School District was murdered in less than three months.
“It’s one of those things that I don’t think any words can describe how heinous of a crime this is,” said Zach Dunagan, spokesman for the Salinas police department.
The shooting happened on Friday, but on Monday, police identified the high schooler as a 14-year-old Alisal High, Ethan Emmanuel Rodriguez, freshman.
“It’s a lot of pain a lot of grief going on right now we, our hearts are heavy today as it was a few months ago with the family and just really lifting them up in prayer and really supporting whatever the family needs and whatever our school community needs to be able to to endure this difficult time,” said Zandra Galvan, superintendent for the Salinas union high school district.
Rodriguez was shot and killed on Friday afternoon near Camarillo and Moreno shortly after school let out.
“We believe this was a very crowded and well-populated area at the time of 3-thirty just after school got out, so we do believe that several people may have witnessed it that still have yet to potentially come forward to provide details,” said Dunagan.
Salinas police are tight-lipped about any information they might have about a possible shooter or shooters to not taint any potential witnesses.
Meanwhile, detectives are pleading for any cellphone or surveillance videos people might have.
“We don’t want to come to the wrong conclusion. This was a 14-year-old that got murdered, and we want justice for the family, and we understand that people want justice quickly, but we also don’t want to get that wrong,” said Dunagan.
Monday grief busters were on campus to help staff and students deal with their loss and campus security was also beefed up.
“There’s the physical safety, and there’s a psychological safety want to make sure that both are being attended to when something happens that’s traumatic, and that it compromises the safety, both physically as well as mentally. We want to make sure that we’re providing those supports,” said Galvan.
The shooting happened in the district of Councilman Jose Barajas, who said today’s youth need to be part of the solution to combat youth violence by becoming messengers of change.
“I think having the youth council on board and starting this year is also a good opportunity for them to be at the forefront of that, having the youth be the messengers to their peers that this is unacceptable, this is senseless, it needs to stop,” said Barajas.
When 17-year-old high schooler Edgar Gomez was shot back in September, police were able to arrest two suspects in less than a week, thanks to community involvement- police are hoping the same will happen with this latest shooting.
Police remind you, you can choose to remain anonymous.
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