Eight months after Martin Blanco Trujillo was shot to death outside a home in Stanton, his family is joining the Orange County Sheriff's Department in stepping up the search for the 30-year-old's killer.
A new $5,000 reward for tips leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer or murderers will be announced at a press conference Tuesday morning at the Stanton Police Substation.
(The OCSD is contracted to provide law enforcement services to the city, which formerly had its own force.)
Besides introducing family members and updating the media and public on the case at the 10 a.m. event at 11100 Cedar St., Stanton, sheriff's investigators plan to fan out in the neighborhood of the shooting, passing out fliers seeking witnesses .
The Weekly reported the murder among last year's roundup of local homicides:
Deputies received a call of shots fired in the 10900 block of Flower Avenue around 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, 2010. Arriving there they found a 30-year-old man who, despite lifesaving efforts, was later pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
He was later identified as Trujillo, who Orange County sheriff's investigators described as a known gang member. While they believed at the time Trujillo's slaying was gang-related, investigators were puzzled because he was not found in rival gang territory. It was a neighborhood he knew well.
The Orange County Register later reported Trujillo had been jailed for 21 days the month before after being convicted of possessing a controlled substance.
Since the murder, deputies have learned that on the night of Trujillo's demise, he was confronted by one of more people near Beach Boulevard and Katella Avenue, which is close to the residential track where he took his last breath.
“Based on multiple interviews and the service of multiple search warrants over the past seven months, enough information has been developed to bring OCSD Homicide Investigators close to solving this case,” reads a statement the department released this morning. “It is believed there were multiple witnesses to the initial confrontation as well as the shooting of Mr. Trujillo.”
But solving what detectives consider a “brutal and seemingly unprovoked murder,” such witnesses need to provide information, as even small, minor details can ultimately lead to apprehension of the killer (see Osama bin Laden). Whether it's the leader of an international terrorist organization or a murderous gang banger, getting them off the streets makes everyone safer.
“Of particular concern to OCSD is that the suspect(s) in this case used a firearm to recklessly shoot in a residential neighborhood where houses occupied by children were literally feet from where Mr. Trujillo was killed,” continues the sheriff's statement. “This suspect is extremely dangerous and a threat to both the citizens and law enforcement officers.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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