Deadly turf fight leaves family grieving

The day 18-year-old Alejandro Ortega was put into the ground at Santa Rosa Memorial Park - a casualty of a gang turf war - some young people attending the burial wore shirts with the words: “Retaliation is a must.”

That was five years ago, and at the time great efforts were made to avoid more violence.

Ortega’s family rejected the deadly sentiment, gang prevention workers canvassed the disputed turf to calm emotions and Sonoma County sheriff’s investigators pursued the teen’s killer.

But the suspect eluded capture and the violence came.

A bullet intended for Ortega’s killer found the wrong man during a deadly high-speed drive-by shooting on Interstate 80. The following year, the shooter in the highway killing stabbed another man in self-defense during a fight at an elementary school campus.

Investigators linked all three killings to retribution and rivalry within two southwest Santa Rosa sureño gangs - Angelino Heights and Varrio Sureño Loco - which had overlapping interests in Southwest Community Park on Hearn Avenue.

“A lot of people paid for this rivalry with their lives,” said Sgt. John Cregan, who runs the Santa Rosa Police Department’s gang crimes team. “And there was no significance to it. They were fighting over who could hang out at the gazebo.”

The violence, of course, is an undercurrent in communities where most people go about their lives despite the young male faces that seek to control a neighborhood.

For Ortega’s father, Rigoberto Ortega, the death of his son continues to haunt him, as does the fact that the killer has never been caught. For the past five years, Rigoberto Ortega has played and replayed each and every step he and other family members took to pull the teen from the clutches of gang life.

But even more haunting is the unmerciful thought that he could have done more.

“If I go eight days without visiting his grave, I don’t feel right,” Ortega said. “Visiting him makes me feel better.”

Sonoma County sheriff’s investigators and Ortega’s family know the name of the man who is suspected of firing the fatal shots. People with Ortega at the time of his death have not cooperated.

When family members gathered around Ortega’s grave on what would have been his 23rd birthday, a group of people hung back while the family mourned, said Armando Ortega, Alejandro’s brother. They did not talk to the family, but nodded when asked if they were there for Ortega’s birthday, he said.

“Everyone keeps quiet. Nobody talks, nobody wants to say anything,” Armando Ortega said.

Alejandro Ortega was shot shortly before 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 28 on Neville Way at Moorland Avenue in Santa Rosa. Wounded, Ortega ran to the end of Neville Way, collapsed and died. The Coroner’s Office said the teenager sustained a single gunshot wound to his chest.

The death completely changed the lives of everyone in the family, Rigoberto Ortega said.

“It’s affected us all,” Ortega said. “We were a family that loved celebrating together, going to the park, having gatherings. We enjoyed each other’s company. That’s all changed.”

Ortega, a self-employed car detailer, stressed again the importance of finding his son’s killer. Not just for a sense of closure but to put an end to the violence that both preceded and stemmed from the killing.

“The important thing for me and my family is that they apprehend him” so he can’t commit any more crimes, Ortega said during a recent interview at his son Armando’s mobile home in west Santa Rosa.

Sitting under the shade of a patio umbrella, Ortega said he was not surprised that his son’s death would lead to more violence. Armando, who is Alejandro’s oldest brother, said those who know anything about the case, including friends of Alejandro’s who were with him the night he died, refuse to cooperate with investigators.

It’s a common ethic or code among gang members, even if they have information that would hurt their rivals.

“As long as no one comes forward and says, ‘I saw it, I was there,’ the case is dead,” Armando Ortega said.

Three years before Alejandro was shot, Rigoberto Ortega took a job as a maintenance worker at a cabin lodge in Oregon. Ortega was divorced from his wife after a bad breakup he said was extremely hard on Alejandro.

Alejandro soon began having trouble at school and was kicked out of Piner High when he was 16 after school officials found he was in possession of a knife, which Alejandro said he was holding for a friend.

He was enrolled at a Santa Rosa continuation school, but was immediately jumped by gang members. He fought back and was kicked out of that school, as well, his father said.

He became increasingly withdrawn from his family, and his deepening association with gang members soon drove a wedge between him and his family.

Ortega said that during his son’s last summer vacations, the teen stayed with him at the Oregon lodge, away from the street life that was pulling him down. His heart soared when he saw Alejandro in that mountain setting.

Ortega said he wished those vacations would never end. He asked his son to stay with him in the mountains, go to the local school and put his troubles behind him. But Alejandro refused, because he had all his friends in Santa Rosa.

“I looked for a way for him to come live with me, but unfortunately I couldn’t find the way,” he said. “I knew something bad would happen, but I never imagined .?.?. .”

Armando Ortega said he has not been the same since his younger brother was killed. The simple things, like standing in a grocery checkout line or walking through a shopping mall, have become difficult.

“I don’t like to be in crowds,” he said. “I’m more cautious. I notice more young kids and it reminds me of him.”

Rigoberto Ortega said his family holds no rancor toward the man who killed Alejandro. But they do want justice.

“If I didn’t have kids, if I didn’t have more family, I would be looking for him,” he said. “But I don’t want violence for violence.”

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com and Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.