Gangs of the Twin Cities: Despite Recent Shooting, Police Say Gang Activity Not at 2007's High Level

Of the seven gang-related shootings in Centralia that were investigated in 2007, Guadalupe Solis-Diaz became the poster boy of heedless violence that hectic summer.

Sentenced to 92 1/2 years in prison, the 17-year-old also became a cautionary tale that sent gun-blazing beefs into dormancy. None of his contemporaries or adversaries would want to be the next kid to waste away an adult life behind bars because of an unwritten gangster code that calls for errant gunfire when an enemy is spotted on the streets.

But then 20-year-old Ulises Carrillo-Cruz allegedly shot Genevieve Purser last month in the courtyard of the Edison Terrace Apartments complex on North Ash Street.

And Carrillo-Cruz's brother, Rolando Carrillo-Cruz, was the intended target of an August 2010 drive-by shooting on Southwest Williams Avenue in Chehalis, according to court documents. Except in Chehalis, only one shot was fired - and it lodged in a parked car.

Police insist the latest shootings are not the fallout of a drug war.

Battles for block-by-block supremacy don't exist here, according to Detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald.

The suspects aren't new recruits, or so-called soldiers, either.

The two recent shootings boil down to bad blood between a group of people who used to run with each other and had a falling out, police and experts say.

Court documents say Purser was with two men and one woman - Joshua "Spooker" Rhoades, Richard "Droopy" Molina and Augustina "Auggie" Flores-Purser - when she was shot in the shoulder in the early afternoon of Dec. 28. They were yelling "LVL" - short for Little Valley Lokotes, a Mexican Yakima-based gang that runs under the Sureños gang umbrella - according to the suspects.

The Sureños and its subsets identify themselves with the color blue; the Norteños and its subsets go with red.

Experts say there is scant - if any - Norteños activity in Lewis County.

The shooting was non-fatal and was allegedly fired across the courtyard by Carrillo-Cruz after he put a warning shot in the ground.

Purser was standing near the corner of the street and the driveway of the apartments when she was shot, police say.

Miraculously, no one has been killed in any gang-related shootings in Centralia.

Also, it's important to note that seven shootings were investigated in 2007. No one knows how many may have occurred in the middle of the night when no witnesses were around.

Gang members typically don't report shootings.

'The Big One'

Murder convictions send people to prison for life.

Solis-Diaz literally got a life sentence. At best, he could get 33 percent of his sentence reduced from his release date - April 14, 2094 - based on good behavior, according to the state Department of Corrections.

"He is never going to see the light of day," Fitzgerald said.

Solis-Diaz was convicted on six counts of first-degree assault with firearm enhancements - his hail of gunfire was shot in the direction of six people standing in front of the Hub Tavern on South Tower Street, although only one was his intended target - one count of drive-by shooting and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Police originally offered Solis-Diaz a plea deal, which would have got him about 15 years in prison.

But he refused, wanting his day in court.

LVL also fed Solis-Diaz the hype that the gang would make sure no witnesses would testify, Fitzgerald said.

That proved to be bluster.

"Their credibility went down the tubes," Fitzgerald said of the gang's image.

Even more, gang members are typically reassured by associates that they'll be taken care of in prison. Friends will visit. Care packages will arrive. An account is established in the commissary.

But Solis-Diaz receives no visitors or benefits, Fitzgerald said.

When he was sentenced, Centralia High School was abuzz with Solis-Diaz's case. Everyone was talking about it.

After last month's shooting, Centralia police school-resource officer Wayne Compton said he heard not a peep - a dramatic turnaround in the culture and student body.

"I couldn't pick one kid out of the high school that's a gang member," Compton said.

Before Thursday, alleged LVL gang-member Colbert A. Salmeron faced a similar predicament as Solis-Diaz's for a 2006 drive-by shooting on South Tower Avenue, but Salmeron accepted a plea deal instead of going to trial.

He could be sentenced to 17 years in prison when he appears before a judge again on Jan. 25.

Graffiti Has Ebbed

In 2007, a wooden fence on the north side of the Tower viaduct was spray painted with the words "LVL Controlamos" - loosely translated as 'LVL controls this area.'

Graffiti was everywhere, broadcasting the coming shootings.

"You could see it in the tagging," said Jennifer Helm, a probation officer who works with offenders in the juvenile court system.

Nowadays, there's no violence written on the walls.

"We're not seeing tagging that we can read and predict," Helm said.

Fitzgerald said new gang activity is typically spurred by transplants from larger cities. Often they are teenagers whose parents send them here to live with relatives and escape the gang life.

But they keep the mindset and gain a few followers.

Leadership is kept loose among the locally known gang members. At most, in the Centralia area, there are five "shotcallers" - "hardcore, straight-up gang members," Fitzgerald said, "and that's their life."

There are at least 10 active gang members in the Centralia area, 20 at most, Fitzgerald said.

Chehalis police report not having much gang activity since the August 2010 shooting, other than occasional graffiti taggings, according to Deputy Chief Randy Kaut.

Rolando and Ulises Carrillo-Cruz moved to Centralia from Chehalis.

Ulises Carrillo-Cruz is in custody and charged with first-degree assault and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. His trial is tentatively set for May 21.

Rolando Carrillo-Cruz, 25, is in custody and charged with first-degree criminal assistance and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. His trial is tentatively set for Feb. 20.

Javier E. Martinez and Francisco J. Robles, both 18, are also in custody and charged with first-degree criminal assistance. Martinez's trial is tentatively set for Feb. 20; Robles' for Feb. 27.

With a police dog, Centralia police found a 9 mm handgun - allegedly used to shoot 28-year-old Purser - in nearby bushes behind the apartment.

In early December, four men were charged with smashing Ulises Carrillo-Cruz's girlfriend's car's windows with baseball bats in front of their Edison Terrace apartment: Ruben A. Palomares, 26, of Tenino; Angel F. Velasquez, 29, of Centralia; Andrez Velasquez, 19, of Centralia, and Jose A. Velasquez, 18, of Centralia.

"It's difficult to go unnoticed here," Compton said.

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Adam Pearson: (360) 807-8208 and twitter.com/ChronicleSirens