San Bernardino police seek motive in triple shooting deaths

SAN BERNARDINO – A triple shooting Monday night left three people dead and two people in custody with police looking into motives that included possible gang ties.

The shooting occurred 7:05 p.m. at a trailer park at 1697 West Highland Ave., said San Bernardino police Lt. David Harp. Two of the three wounded died at the scene and another died nearly four hours later.

When police and fire crews arrived at the scene, about four blocks northwest of San Bernardino Community Hospital, they quickly discovered the three gunshot victims. Police, who responded to reports of gunfire at 7:08 p.m., were able to arrest two men shortly after the shooting occurred. Said Harp: “Officers were scouting the area and we had a good description of them.”

Police arrested Jesus Urzua, 19, of San Bernardino, and Emmanuel Pimental, 25, of Rialto, who is also being held on an arrest warrant for violating parole in Sacramento County.

They were taken into custody for the deaths of Evaristo Contreras, 20, Jesus Tiburiso, 18, and Ruben Sanchez, 19, all of San Bernardino, according to county coroner records. Tiburiso and Sanchez died at the scene while Contreras died in surgery at 10:47 p.m. at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Robertson said the suspected weapons in the crime were recovered.

On Tuesday afternoon, San Bernardino police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Waters said, “We haven’t identified a motive yet. It definitely appears there was some relationship between the suspects and victims. We don’t know how they knew each other yet, but it was not a random crime.”

While the victims have no known gang ties, she said “the two suspects are both identified members of an Ontario gang, but we don’t know yet if the crime was related to that.”

Jail records show that police arrested Urzua at 7:29 p.m. at 17th and Arizona streets. Pimental was taken into custody at the same time at 1604 North Colorado St. They are each in custody for three counts of murder, according to reports.