An 18-year-old man was identified Monday as the person killed when gunfire erupted during a party at the home of Gilroy city councilwoman Rebeca Armendariz, leaving three other teens wounded and sending partygoers fleeing.
Michael Daniel Zuniga-Macias was fatally shot just before 1 a.m. on Saturday at Armendariz’s house in the 400 block of Las Animas Avenue in Gilroy, according to the Gilroy Police Department. Two injured victims remain in the hospital; the other has since been released.
Questions continued to swirl Monday evening over the Halloween-weekend party that ended when several shots could be heard echoing from Amendariz’s property. Among them were the involvement of the council woman — a longtime community activist who is nearing the end of her first year on the City Council — as well as what spurred a fight that preceded the gunfire.
Police on Monday said they suspect at least two people played a role in the shooting; with one person already taken into custody. Benjamin David Calderon, 19, was arrested after a search warrant was served Saturday afternoon at a house in the 7100 block of Church Street.
Police did not release further details on Calderon’s arrest, nor did they give any information on the other person tied to the shooting.
Investigators found two guns at the scene of the shooting, though it was not clear whether either was used in the shooting itself, Gilroy police said.
Multiple calls and messages by this news organization to Armendariz have not been returned.
At sunset, several dozen people gathered outside the council woman’s house, clutching candles and mourning Zuniga-Macias with songs and prayer. They arranged orange flowers in the shape of a heart outside the fence surrounding Armendariz’s property, and a few people played instruments.
“There’s nothing we can do to heal the pain right now,” said a man leading the vigil, while mentioning Zuniga-Macias’ family. “We want them to feel loved.”
Armendariz was elected to the City Council in 2020, bringing to the position a background in activism and community organizing. She is a founding board member of Community Agency for Resources, Advocacy and Services, otherwise known as CARAS, a nonprofit that focuses on advocacy, service and cultural events, the Gilroy Dispatch reported.
She unsuccessfully ran for the City Council in 2012 and previously served on the city’s Planning Commission, Housing Advisory Committee, Parks and Recreation Commission and Community Block Grant Advisory Committee.
Earlier on Monday, Gilroy Mayor Marie Blankley called the shooting a “tragedy.”
“We all have questions that can’t be answered yet,” Blankley said. “This is yet another senseless tragedy, from which our community is left dumbfounded on how to stop violence and criminal behavior, period.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com