Author: KION

Lindsey Selzer

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV) – A man is convicted of multiple charges, including the attempted murder of a peace officer during a 2024 armed robbery in King City.

According to the Monterey County District Attorney’s office, 37-year-old Armando Rodriguez Garcia was found guilty of attempted murder and seven counts of assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm.

Garcia was also found guilty on three counts of armed robbery, and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Garcia had approached three men walking on a bridge in King City and robbed them of their phones and wallets with his gun before leaving the area in a black Mazda.

Later that night, Greenfield Police found the Mazda traveling on northbound Highway 101 and attempted to stop the car, leading to a quick pursuit. Greenfield Police alerted King City Police of Garcia’s car.

Garcia started shooting from the passenger side before exiting the car and firing at police, firing four shots. Two King City officers fired back as Garcia ran toward a shopping center in Soledad.

Garcia was then struck by gunfire and transported to Natividad Medical Center.

Garcia is expected to be sentenced on June 10, facing up to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

DA’s Office identifies two King City Police Officers who were involved in an officer-involved shooting on Highway 101

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) — The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office has released the names of two King City Police officers who were involved in an officer-involved shooting on Highway 101.

According to a spokesperson with the DA’s Office, Sgt. Anthony Shaw has been employed as a sergeant with King City Police for three years and nine months. Shaw was a peace officer with Central Marin Police Authority for 13 years, 4 months.

The other officer involved was Cody Hughes per Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni. Hughes has only been with King City Police for three months. Before joining King City Police, Hughes was a Monterey County Probation Officer for 16 years.

The suspect involved in the shooting, 36-year-old Armando Garcia Rodriguez is currently being treated at a local hospital and will be booked into the Monterey County Jail.

The DA’s office said that Rodriguez fired four rounds at officers before Shaw and Hughes returned fire on Monday night.

Man accused of armed robbery and shooting at police officers identified by Monterey County D.A.

The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office has identified the man accused of armed robbery and shooting at police officers near Soledad on Monday night.

The D.A.’s office says 36-year-old Armando Garcia Rodriguez will be booked into the Monterey County Jail once he’s treated at a local hospital for injuries sustained when officers returned fire on Rodriguez during a traffic stop.

King City and Greenfield Police were initially pulling Rodriguez over because his vehicle matched the description of one involved in an armed robbery in King City just hours prior.

“As a woman, it’s scary because I feel like, it would be,” said Jessica Morales who works near where the attempted robbery happened. “It makes me an easy target.”

When the Mazda started slowing along Highway 101 near Soledad, the D.A.’s office says Rodriguez emerged from the passenger side of the vehicle and started shooting at police officers.

Two King City Police officers returned fire after Rodriguez allegedly fired four rounds at officers, according to the D.A.

Investigators say Rodriguez was hit once by gunfire in the incident but is expected to be okay.

According to the D.A., the driver of the Mazda told investigators she had no idea Rodriguez was going to commit a robbery and after he did so he “then threatened her with the firearm.” Investigators say he also directed her not to stop and would shoot her and police.

A .40 caliber semi-automatic ghost gun was recovered at the scene, according ot investigators.

The D.A. says the names of the officers involved in the shooting will not be released until interviews are conducted with the officers on Wednesday.

One was described as a peace officer with about 17 years of experience while the other had three months of experience.

The D.A. says they plan to file armed robbery and attempted murder of a peace officer charges against Rodriguez.

Rodriguez’s first date in court is not known at this time, pending treatment at the local hospital.

“I think it just put more safety around this area, especially because it’s it’s out here. It’s really I think it’s really easy to target people out here. So I think maybe more safety around here,” said Morales.

One suspect shot after armed robbery ends in an officer-involved shooting outside of Soledad along Highway 101, officers say

King City Police said that a male suspect was shot by officers after leading police on a car chase that ended on Highway 101.

According to the King City Police Department, at approximately 6 p.m. Monday night, officers were dispatched to South First Street between Lonoak Road and Division Street for an armed robbery.

Investigators said that three victims had been walking down South First Street when a vehicle pulled up next to them and a Hispanic male suspect stepped out and pointed a gun at them, demanding their personal property before fleeing with the stolen merchandise.

Officers identified the suspects’ vehicle during the follow up investigation, with officers from the Greenfield Police located the suspect vehicle traveling Northbound Highway 101. Officers attempting a vehicle stop but the suspects’ vehicle refused to yield, starting a pursuit that was taken over by King City Police.

Eventually, the vehicle yielded just south of the Front Street exit, the Hispanic male suspect got out of the vehicle and started opening fire at officers who returned fire and hit him once. The suspect was taken to a nearby hospital for his injuries and is expected to survive.

There were no officer injuries reported by King City Police.

Officers involved have not been named at this point. The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office is taking over the case.

Original Story

Multiple Monterey County law enforcement agencies are confirming to KION that an armed robbery in King City ended with an officer- involved shooting near Soledad on Monday night.

Multiple suspects led officers on a chase along northbound Highway 101 and eventually stopped at Arroyo Seco Road where they opened fire on officers, according to sources.

Officers fired back at the suspects, striking one of the suspects. It’s unknown what their condition is at this time.

At this point, The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office is taking over the case.

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jose.romo

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) – The City of Salinas is looking at a rental assistance program as an alternative for the community. Some local folks remain with many questions and concerns as to this potential decision. City Council presented with the option to emulate a renter’s assistance program, Tuesday afternoon. 

Among the projects looked at, the city of Monterey which in the past has used $250 thousand in general fund money. 

“The staff will start looking for financial partners in the city and maybe in the county,” Councilmember for District two, Tony Barrera, says. “They’re going to be bringing in other groups that can assist us on how to figure this program out.”

The assistance program presentation included those whose rent is more than 80 percent of their income, senior citizens and other eligibility requirements to consider through a renters application process. The projected cost, more than $500 thousand in employee wages, technology fees, and other additional expenses.

“Where’s the funding for this rental assistance program coming from?” Luis Xago Juárez, community organizer with Building Healthy Communities, worries the city does not have enough funds.

“Is it coming from taxpayers? What that does is it taps into our taxpayer, our pool, our money to go and support the efforts of the landlords,” he adds.

City Council suggested searching for local and external partners before pulling from general funds. Amy Salmina, local property manager, says this assistance program would be beneficial. “I believe that there are funds that will be remaining from the rental assistance program to seed it. Other organizations that Aurelio (Salazar) mentioned, maybe FEMA, the mayor mentioned, community involvement, maybe the one-time fee from property owners.”  

The council was advised that many rental assistance programs have been successful in the past. A common practice among those has been pulling resources from the city’s general fund. Councilmember Barrera feels the city should be careful with that decision. 

“We have to be conscientious that that’s where we pay our employees,” Barrerra adds.  “We have to make sure that if we do get money from the general fund, that we don’t affect people’s employment as well.”

Among other alternatives, the city council also suggested increasing the minimum wage in Salinas. The decision for this rental assistance program will still take a few months.

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Jeanette Bent

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV) — Another Central Coast festival is hitting the breaks this year. Although not canceled completely, the Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival will be postponed because of financial hardships and a lack of helping hands.

“People think of lettuce and strawberries and artichokes, but I mean wine, you just look around, a lot of fields have turned to vineyards,” said Sean Laughingtree

The golden crop is what Sean, who works at an antique store in Salinas, calls grapes that grow on the central coast.

“Wine, growing of grapes has been an integral part, like a huge part of our agriculture now,” said Laughingtree.

The Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival was a celebration of that crop, bringing in regional and local wine vendors.

Business owner Frank Savino says, beyond the buzz, the festival brings foot traffic and funds for local causes.

“The beauty of having it downtown is getting, you know, a thousand plus people to walk past your business in a four or five hour period,” said Savino

“We like donating the profit to the local community. We do education, agriculture. We have scholarships.”

One of the main organizers of the event, Joel Panzer, says there’s a slew of reasons the festival isn’t happening this year.

“The first one is just volunteer fatigue. As I mentioned, for the past six years, the core group has been putting on the festival. And we’ve been unable to recruit new volunteers from the community, our prices have really increased quite a bit over the last few years to produce it, the third dynamic is this year alone, I would say there’s probably $20,000 to $25,000 worth of corporate sponsorships or sponsorships that we know are not gonna come through,” said Joel Panzer, Organizer for the Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival.

Panzer adds that the cost to hold the event is over 60 thousand dollars and relies on those sponsors.

Sean says he understands the reasoning behind the pause as an event organizer himself, and says postponing was the right choice if it means protecting the festival’s reputation.

“To not have enough volunteers to do that, people, I think, would go away with a really bad feeling and maybe not return the next year,” said Laughingtree.

While Panzer assures the festival will come back next year, a big question remains of if the event will remain in Old Town Salinas.

“That we don’t know we explored other options, and what we’re hearing the consistent feedback was people want it to be downtown,” said Panzer.

Some possible future venues Joel mentioned are the fairgrounds and the sheriff’s posse ground, but is working to keep it here in Old Town.

For more information about plans for the Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival, visit salinasvalleyfoodandwine.com.

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Maxwell Glenn

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) – CHP Monterey confirms a suspect is now in custody following a string of incidents in north Monterey County.

The California Highway Patrol was dispatched just after 9:00 p.m. on Monday night after receiving reports of a hit-and-run.

The suspect was first involved in a crash near San Miguel Canyon Road and Hambey Lane. The car then reportedly continued traveling north, crashing near San Miguel Canyon Road and Corto San Miguel Canyon Road. The second incident involved a power pole, but after PG&E performed an integrity check, it was deemed to have sustained little damage.

The third and final incident happened at San Juan Road and Tarpey Road. According to the CHP, the suspect’s vehicle collided with another car, resulting in minor injuries.

The suspect fled the crash but was quickly found and arrested.

DUI is suspected to be a factor, according to the CHP.

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jose.romo

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV) — Governor Gavin Newsom urged cities and counties to ban homeless encampments this Monday morning. Newsom presented a blueprint for a camping ban that cities and counties can adopt or modify. Gov. Newsom will also allocate $3.3 billion to address the crisis. 

“The needs for beds are overwhelming, but that is why we are so excited for this announcement,” Governor Newsom said. “Now it is about driving these projects to completion.”

In a virtual press conference Monday afternoon, Governor Newsom announced 54 counties in California will receive funds to tackle the state’s homelessness crisis. 

The goal: to ban encampments on sidewalks and busy streets. 

“People need help and we need to help people,” said Monica Drome, who lives in Salinas. “l don’t think that charging us more taxes is going to do that. There is enough money in this country to help with the mental health problem.”

The blueprint would prohibit encampments on streets and sidewalks, making laws easier for cities and counties to enforce. It would also use $3.3 billion in voter-approved funds. Between 2014 and 2019, the state of California saw an increase of 37,000 homeless people. Although this number continues to rise at the federal level, California has limited the increase to 3 percent by 2024, according to the state governor’s data.

“We need a place where people can live, because finding a temporary shelter, a building, or temporary apartments, the issue is still there,” Drome adds.

Some with mixed feelings see the need for change, but are afraid of not finding a good solution. Others like Robert LePate, who says he is facing homelessness, fear not finding a bed in the local shelter.

“I’m hoping that the shelter has a bottom bunk for me because if not, then I’m going to be out in the streets tonight somewhere,” he said.  “That’s going to be my worst nightmare.”

He says that resources should also help those who, like him, suffer from homelessness while also facing physical disabilities. KION reached out to the city of Salinas for their take on these ordinances. They say it is too early to speak of the effects this may have on the community.

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Victor Guzman

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KION-TV) — Governor Newsom on Monday released a “model ordinance” for counties and cities to implement to address homeless encampments across the state.

The model ordinance includes a number of provisions listed below which the state says can be modified based on local needs.

A prohibition on persistent camping in one location

A prohibition on encampments that block free passage on sidewalks

A requirement that local officials provide notice and make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter prior to clearing an encampment

The guidance from the Governor’s previous executive order requires at least 48 hours’ notice, outreach to local service providers and proper storage of items when clearing out encampments.

According to Newsom’s office, California is outperforming other states with large populations in slowing down homelessness.

The state previously released a database showing where counties and cities need to improve and which need the most improving.

The entire model ordinance from the Governor’s office can be read here

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jose.romo

CASTROVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV)– Businesses, locals, and tourists alike are feeling all choked up. The annual Artichoke Festival is officially calling it quits after decades on the central coast. After 65 years, the artichoke festival is bidding farewell to Monterey County.

The event helped put Castroville on the map — the small town now known to many as the artichoke capitol of the world.

“We just drove down for the day for Mother’s Day, and I did hear that the festival was closing down, and we’re sorry to hear that,” Jeff Gliever mentioned. “Had a lot of good times here, and it’s too bad, but we’re gonna still eat artichokes.”  

Jeff, who is visiting from San Jose was sure to make a stop on his way home for artichokes. He, like many others, is sad to see this tradition go away. 

“There’s like a 65-year history and then all of a sudden it just got canceled,” Josie Weisner from the Bay Area said as she picked a few artichokes from the grocery store. “It’s always nice, these kinds of events for the community.” 

Most of the nation’s artichokes are grown in California, with two thirds of crops coming from fields around Castroville. The festival first began back in 1959, moving to the Monterey County Fairgrounds in 2014. This year it was scheduled to be hosted in Salinas for the first time. 

“We were going to do all their fried artichokes for the festival so that’s like a thousand pounds of canceled fried artichokes that we had, you know, ready for them for the sale, but after that, it was just sad because it stops promoting artichokes.” 

Jose Salazar has owned the iconic Giant Artichoke Restaurant for over twenty years. He says the festival increased sales by about 70 percent back when it was still in Castroville. Since then, his small business has taken a big hit. 

“When they moved to Monterey, it was only about 30%. So the first big mistake they made is moving it out of Castroville,” he says. “I think, for all the local businesses here in town, that lost out on that income. 

The festival’s board of directors say rising costs to host the event have made it no longer feasible, leading to the difficult decision of a total cancellation. Still, Salazar thinks the years of tradition left its mark on the community. 

“It just makes you happy, and it makes you kind of willing to work harder and say, hey, we can create more dishes, we could do this because we have more and more people coming out to enjoy artichokes.” Salazar, owner of the giant artichoke restaurant, hopes the community can bring back the festival to Castroville.

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Jeanette Bent

FORT ORD, Calif. (KION-TV) — The U.S. Army announced Friday that as a part of its ongoing environmental cleanup at the former Fort Ord, they will be conducting a large prescribed burn starting this summer.

They say that during this time, that will take place between July and December, people can expect road and trail closures.

The U.S. Army saying that the prescribed burn is to help remove vegetation within the munitions cleanup area and encourage successful recovery of the rare fire-dependent plant species within the Fort Ord Monument.

If you would like to sign up to learn about when and where these prescribed burns will happen, you can sign up for the Direct Notification Program and complete the registration form online at fortordcleanup.com.

If you register for the Direct Notification Program, the Army will notify you via email, text, or by an automated telephone message that:

a prescribed burn could occur shortly (a day or two)

when the prescribed burn is started

when the prescribed burn is complete

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Mickey Adams

CARMEL, Calif. (KION-TV) – New photos show the suspects in this past Friday’s Wells Fargo bank robbery in Carmel.

According to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, the suspects entered the Wells Fargo around 4:40 pm on May 9 and were believed to have been armed with handguns.

The suspects are seen wearing masks, hats, and gloves, concealing their identities. All the suspects wore hooded sweatshirts, including one wearing a yellow hoodie with a Grim Reaper design on the back and the word “Rebel.”

The suspects were last seen leaving the area in a red car with an undisclosed amount of money.

MCSO is asking those who have any information on who the suspects may be to call Detective Rodrigo Lopez at 831-253-6050 or Detective Sergeant Nicholas Kennedy at 831-597-1228.

Police actively investigating a bank robbery in Carmel, prompts school lockdown earlier

CARMEL, Calif. (KION-TV) — Heavy police presence nearby Carmel Middle School brought the campus to a full lockdown on Friday afternoon.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office says that they are actively investigating a bank robbery that took place in the area.

“About 20 minutes before 5 p.m., Monterey County Sheriff’s received a call about an unknown number of people entering the bank believed to be armed with firearms,” said Monterey County Sheriff’s Office PIO Andy Rosas. “When our deputies arrived, they did locate a vehicle of interest and were able to determine there was no one inside the vehicle.”

Rosas said that a group of people were seen fleeing into Carmel Middle School, and despite the school day being over, deputies felt it was best to secure the campus.

Some locals have contacted the station saying they saw helicopters circling the area, and Monterey deputies confirm this by stating that there was a “tremendous” response from law enforcement.

Deputies say that they searched the Carmel River Bed but there were no suspects found. They also said that the lifted the school lockdown, as a result.

Rosas says that a second vehicle was located, and it has been deemed a vehicle of interest. He said that it was towed away from the scene.

Although the search is still ongoing, deputies are telling the public that there is no immediate threat to public safety.

Rosas says that an elderly person did receive minor injuries, and that person was treated at the scene.

Deputies are asking for anyone with further information to contact the non-emergency police line at 831.647.7911.

This is a developing story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available.

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Sergio Berrueta

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) — Salinas Police say Natividad Road is back open after a crash on Wednesday that left thousands without power.

As of Thursday morning, PG&E is reporting around 500 people are still without power along the edge of Natividad Road.

The road closure initially stretched from Saratoga to Boronda Road.

PG&E says power is expected to be restored around 9 am.

Highway 101 back open, thousands still without power in Monterey County

Power has been restored for thousands as of Wednesday night, but there are still just over 2,700 homes without power late on Wednesday, power restoration currently set for just past midnight.

Neighbors say that Natividad road is a dangerous one, with this far from the first time powerlines have been brought down by a bad driver. One local living in the home underneath the fallen pole says that before she bought the home, a powerline had fallen into the home’s backyard. Many now wondering what it will take for the city to take action to improve traffic safety on Natividad Road.

Highway 101 has reopened in both directions at North Main Street in Salinas.

This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Numerous power outages throughout Monterey County have left thousands without power after a car impacted transmission lines near Highway 101.

According to PG&E, a car driving near North Main Street and Highway 101 hit transmission lines, causing a small fire nearby. That fire has since been put out.

PG&E is on scene assessing the damage wth Highway 101 shut down in both directions.

Transmission lines are larger lines that connect and power other communities, such as Carmel Valley. Power lines only affect portions of cities and towns near those power poles.

According to PG&E’s outage map, more than 17,000 people are without power in Monterey as of 3:10 p.m.

Parts along the coast from Andrew Molera State Park down to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park are without power, along with Carmel Valley and near Fort Ord National Monument.

There is no estimated time of restoration.

Another part of Salinas is also without power near Creekbridge and Natividad Road. The estimated restoration time of that area is expected to be 5:45 p.m.

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