Authorities say a Guadalupe man was the victim of Santa Maria’s latest homicide, which occurred over the weekend.
Mario Angel Merino Gonzalez, 19, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting early Sunday, Lt. Terry Flaa of the Santa Maria Police Department said.
Shortly after 2 a.m., police officers, Santa Maria firefighters and an AMR ambulance were dispatched to the shooting scene near North Lincoln and West Mill streets, a block west of North Broadway, Flaa said.
They discovered a man in the middle of the street who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
The initial investigation revealed that Gonzalez had been in a verbal altercation with a group of people when someone pulled a gun and shot him.
Anyone with information related to this shooting can contact the Santa Maria Police Department at 805-928-3781, ext. 2277, or call the department’s tip line at 805.928.3781, ext. 2677.
The killing was not the first of the year in Santa Maria.
The first occurred at 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 2 on the 900 block of West El Camino Street, where police found the victim, Kevin Alan Najarro, 35, of Santa Maria.
He was declared dead at the scene after being shot multiple times, police said.
Days later, police arrested Robert Anthony Molina III, 35, at an apartment on the 200 block of North Depot Street.
Two months ago, police said they were investigating the suspicious death of a man found in a home on the 400 block of West Street.
Emergency personnel were dispatched at approximately 8:20 p.m. March 9 and found the man had “visible trauma.”
His name has not been released pending notification of his family members.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.