http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/newsatlanta/suspects1101.html
By Beth Warren and Joshua B. Good
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers
Two 16-year-old girls were following orders from gang elders when they shot two teens Monday in a Norcross park, authorities believe.
The two victims weren't supposed to live. One did.
JOHN SPINK / AJC staff
Police surround the brick duplex Tuesday where several people were arrested. Neighbors react.
Even after a bullet pierced her throat, Robin Rainey, 17, managed to get to the 35-acre park's only pay phone, call 911 and give dispatchers enough details to lead police to members of the Fulton County-based gang Vatos Locos, Spanish for "crazy homeboys."
In the darkness, Rainey and victim Mechelle Marie Torres, 18, willingly rode with gang members to the Pinckneyville Park Soccer Complex thinking they were about to be accepted back into the gang by taking a beating, Gwinnett County police spokesman George Gilson said. The gang would then sit around smoking pot, he said.
The ritual is called being "beat in" and can entail a head-to-toe beating by several gang members.
The Fulton County teens had agreed to take their punishment for hanging out with members of a rival gang, but the plan was to kill them for their disloyalty, Gilson said.
"In general, gangs consider that once you are a member you are a member for life," Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said.
Police made 10 arrests early Tuesday, charging two high school dropouts, Janeth Christina Olarte, 16, of Gainesville and Hasia Sauceda, 16, of Duluth, and three adults with murder and aggravated assault. Five others were charged with obstruction for trying to hide from police, running to other rooms and ducking in closets when investigators raided gang members' Lawrenceville duplex.
Investigators were planning to return to the home, on Still Lake Drive, with a search warrant by today, hoping to find the murder weapons and other evidence.
Sauceda and Olarte later confessed to the|shootings, Gilson said. Police did not discuss how many shots were fired or if there were other shooters. Gilson did say more arrests are possible.
As of late Tuesday, Rainey remained in serious condition at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville.
One of the gang members charged with her shooting is a man she has previously identified as her boyfriend, Raul Garcia-Bonilla, 19.
In June, Garcia-Bonilla was charged with beating Rainey for more than six hours. According to the police report: While spending the night at Garcia-Bonilla's apartment on Lindbergh Drive in Atlanta, Rainey told police she made the mistake of talking to one of his friends. Garcia-Bonilla asked her to step outside, then beat her down, kicked her and grabbed her hair and pounded her head into a brick wall. He tore off her necklace. He forced her back into the apartment and would not let her go. The beatings continued through the night. The next day, she escaped and called police.
Detectives arrested Garcia-Bonilla on charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping and robbery. What happened to that case is unclear. The Fulton County District Attorney's Office has no record of the charges, said DA spokesman Erik Friedly.
Garcia-Bonilla also is wanted in Roswell on charges of obstruction, theft by taking and giving police a false name.
Prior to the arrests, Atlanta area police had known little about Vatos Locos.
Garcia-Bonilla, Jorge Luis Nolasco, 22, of Doraville, and Celerino Palma, 21, of Lawrenceville, charged with murder and aggravated assault, appeared before a judge for a preliminary hearing Tuesday, police said. Investigators are looking at whether the three ordered the younger girls to carry out the killings - possibly even handing them the murder weapons.
Younger gang members "are basically used as tools by adult gang members," Porter said. "Often times adult gang members will affiliate with minors because they have the perception that if the minor commits the crime for them, they'll be treated less seriously."
But Porter said he will prosecute the 16-year-old girls on the same murder and aggravated assault charges as the men in the gang.
Mariela Olarte, Janeth's grandmother, said the teen recently had taken to hanging out in the street with friends.
The grandmother said the girl has not been living in the home for a while. About two weeks ago Janeth returned home with another girl and two other boys, took some clothes and left.
Her grandmother said she was raising the girl in New York City and brought her to Gainesville in the early 1990s.
Parents of the victims also told police that they weren't sure where their daughters had been living during recent weeks. Both apparently had been staying with various friends, Gilson said.
By Tuesday afternoon there was little evidence of the horror that occurred at the park Monday morning. County workers spread black spray paint on a running path trying to cover up the large bloodstains, although a few red droplets could still easily be seen.
Holes left by the bullets could still be seen in the pavement and the receiver had been ripped off the pay phone that Rainey used to call police.
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By Beth Warren and Joshua B. Good
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers
Two 16-year-old girls were following orders from gang elders when they shot two teens Monday in a Norcross park, authorities believe.
The two victims weren't supposed to live. One did.
JOHN SPINK / AJC staff
Police surround the brick duplex Tuesday where several people were arrested. Neighbors react.
Even after a bullet pierced her throat, Robin Rainey, 17, managed to get to the 35-acre park's only pay phone, call 911 and give dispatchers enough details to lead police to members of the Fulton County-based gang Vatos Locos, Spanish for "crazy homeboys."
In the darkness, Rainey and victim Mechelle Marie Torres, 18, willingly rode with gang members to the Pinckneyville Park Soccer Complex thinking they were about to be accepted back into the gang by taking a beating, Gwinnett County police spokesman George Gilson said. The gang would then sit around smoking pot, he said.
The ritual is called being "beat in" and can entail a head-to-toe beating by several gang members.
The Fulton County teens had agreed to take their punishment for hanging out with members of a rival gang, but the plan was to kill them for their disloyalty, Gilson said.
"In general, gangs consider that once you are a member you are a member for life," Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said.
Police made 10 arrests early Tuesday, charging two high school dropouts, Janeth Christina Olarte, 16, of Gainesville and Hasia Sauceda, 16, of Duluth, and three adults with murder and aggravated assault. Five others were charged with obstruction for trying to hide from police, running to other rooms and ducking in closets when investigators raided gang members' Lawrenceville duplex.
Investigators were planning to return to the home, on Still Lake Drive, with a search warrant by today, hoping to find the murder weapons and other evidence.
Sauceda and Olarte later confessed to the|shootings, Gilson said. Police did not discuss how many shots were fired or if there were other shooters. Gilson did say more arrests are possible.
As of late Tuesday, Rainey remained in serious condition at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville.
One of the gang members charged with her shooting is a man she has previously identified as her boyfriend, Raul Garcia-Bonilla, 19.
In June, Garcia-Bonilla was charged with beating Rainey for more than six hours. According to the police report: While spending the night at Garcia-Bonilla's apartment on Lindbergh Drive in Atlanta, Rainey told police she made the mistake of talking to one of his friends. Garcia-Bonilla asked her to step outside, then beat her down, kicked her and grabbed her hair and pounded her head into a brick wall. He tore off her necklace. He forced her back into the apartment and would not let her go. The beatings continued through the night. The next day, she escaped and called police.
Detectives arrested Garcia-Bonilla on charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping and robbery. What happened to that case is unclear. The Fulton County District Attorney's Office has no record of the charges, said DA spokesman Erik Friedly.
Garcia-Bonilla also is wanted in Roswell on charges of obstruction, theft by taking and giving police a false name.
Prior to the arrests, Atlanta area police had known little about Vatos Locos.
Garcia-Bonilla, Jorge Luis Nolasco, 22, of Doraville, and Celerino Palma, 21, of Lawrenceville, charged with murder and aggravated assault, appeared before a judge for a preliminary hearing Tuesday, police said. Investigators are looking at whether the three ordered the younger girls to carry out the killings - possibly even handing them the murder weapons.
Younger gang members "are basically used as tools by adult gang members," Porter said. "Often times adult gang members will affiliate with minors because they have the perception that if the minor commits the crime for them, they'll be treated less seriously."
But Porter said he will prosecute the 16-year-old girls on the same murder and aggravated assault charges as the men in the gang.
Mariela Olarte, Janeth's grandmother, said the teen recently had taken to hanging out in the street with friends.
The grandmother said the girl has not been living in the home for a while. About two weeks ago Janeth returned home with another girl and two other boys, took some clothes and left.
Her grandmother said she was raising the girl in New York City and brought her to Gainesville in the early 1990s.
Parents of the victims also told police that they weren't sure where their daughters had been living during recent weeks. Both apparently had been staying with various friends, Gilson said.
By Tuesday afternoon there was little evidence of the horror that occurred at the park Monday morning. County workers spread black spray paint on a running path trying to cover up the large bloodstains, although a few red droplets could still easily be seen.
Holes left by the bullets could still be seen in the pavement and the receiver had been ripped off the pay phone that Rainey used to call police.
------------------
WARNING: This post may be another "self-aggrandizing attempt to cause needless controversy, argument, distraction"
-*-
Keepin' the FUD Legacy Alive! Check us out @ FUD's Fan Club!
Of course, this gang banger victim becomes another one of HCI's "children" killed by handgun violence. Now, if we had only banned handguns, I'm sure these thugs, not wishing to break the law, would have used a more politically correct weapon to commit their murders.
And he only got like 15yrs. Go figure.