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Double-homicide over suspected cockfight - (Plainview, CA - US)

Crime Date: 02/19/2005
Case Status: Alleged
Abusers/Suspects:
Abuser: Suspect's Name Unreleased

Case Report

Two men were killed Feb 19 in a shooting in a small farming community in what neighbors believe was a dispute sparked by an illegal cockfight. Tulare County sheriff's Lt. David Galloway had few details of the apparent homicide, confirming only that two men had been killed at a home about 20 miles southeast of Visalia.

"We are working the scene, investigating what happened. All we can confirm is that two Hispanic men are dead," Galloway said.

Galloway said deputies had not identified the men, and could not release their ages or hometowns.

"I heard the gunshots, seven or eight gunshots, right at noon. Right after that, the deputies started getting here," said neighbor Crystal Morales.

Morales said the home, in the 19700 block of Oklahoma Avenue, was recently occupied by a family of five, including three small children.

Neighbors disagreed, though, over whether the family had left the neighborhood.

Morales said she was sure, though, that the two men killed did not live in the neighborhood, and that both had been fighting roosters earlier in the day. "They were definitely cockfighting, there's a lot of that here," Morales said.

Cockfighting and dog fighting arrests have been made in several small Tulare County communities in recent months, including 19 so far in February.

The fights are popular in several cultures, but in the United States, they are only legal in Louisiana and New Mexico.

Sheriff's Lt. Marsh Carter said this month that gambling, guns, drugs and alcohol are commonly found when police raid cockfights.

Galloway declined to comment on the neighbors' story, or whether the homicides were the results of an argument over a cockfight.

Residents on Oklahoma Avenue said they weren't sure whether the house where the homicides occurred was vacant. The house immediately east of the small pink stucco home secured by crime scene tape is burned out, one of several houses on the street that appear to have been destroyed by recent fires.

Several other houses appear abandoned, the yards overgrown with grass and weeds, or flooded by recent rains.

Morales said that within minutes of the gunfire, the narrow street was crowded with sheriff's cars, including patrol cars and unmarked cars driven by detectives.

Two ambulances also responded. "They left, though, and we didn't see them load any bodies," Morales said.

Plainview is a small collection of narrow streets with two convenience stores on Road 196, the main thoroughfare.

Oklahoma is one of just five side streets, with small homes surrounded, in most cases, by chain-link fences.

Dogs of all sizes run loose, in packs and alone, and children were playing in front yards next to the homicide scene.

In recent years, Guerrero said, many new people have moved into her neighborhood from San Francisco and Los Angeles, changing the makeup of a community that she said used to be very tight-knit.

"When those people came in, more trouble started. I've heard lots of gunfire when people shoot into the air at night, but I've never heard of anyone getting killed until now," Guerrero said.

A Tulare County mobile crime lab sat in front of the house as detectives videotaped evidence markers that ran in a straight line from the street to the house.

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