A firearms expert today matched bullet casings at the scene of June’s Mission District mass shooting with another bullet casing found in a car linked to suspect Javier Campos — and with a gun Campos dumped shortly before his arrest.
“When Mr. Campos was arrested in Santa Cruz County after a vehicle pursuit, a magazine and gun were tossed from the car, and that’s where [the gun] was recovered,” prosecutor Stacie Pettigrew told San Francisco Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ross today after a hearing meant to determine whether Campos will face trial.
That gun, tested by a crime-lab expert, left similar markings to those on the spent casings found in the area of the shooting, and in the Mercedes-Benz. The car was seen on nearby surveillance cameras after the shooting.
Campos, 23, has been accused of opening fire on a block party at 24th Street and Treat Avenue on June 9, injuring nine people. If convicted, Campos could face life in prison.
During the third day of the preliminary hearing today, Pettigrew also spent several hours establishing Campos and his associates’ gang affiliation. Several of Campos’ charges include gang enhancements.
The lead police investigator in the case, Sgt. Robert Trujillo, testified today that Campos is a known and active member of the 16th Street Sureño street gang. Trujillo, who works with the Community Violence Reduction Team of the San Francisco Police Department, formerly known as the Gang Task Force, testified as an expert in street gangs.
“He is a member of the Sureño gang and, with that, has some kind of status within the gang, based on his previous criminal history,” Trujillo said. He said this opinion of Campos’ status was based, in part, on “the notoriety” of the mass shooting, as well as the fact that Campos was separated from fellow gang members while in Santa Cruz County Jail.
In an Instagram message thread between Campos and an unnamed woman, Trujillo said Campos essentially admitted he is a gang member. “He said something along the lines of, ‘Why don’t you suck this Sureño’s dick?’ … I would say that’s self-admission.”
On Monday, police tied Campos to an Instagram account that appeared to brag about a shooting days afterward, an apparent confirmation of Mission Local’s reporting from last summer.
Trujillo said the location of the target was gang-related, too: Rival Norteño gang cliques generally claim territories along 24th Street, including the area housing the Dying Breed skate shop, according to police, which Campos allegedly targeted in the shooting.
None of the nine people shot at the block party in June 2023 are believed to have connections to any street gang, he said.
Sureños have three different cliques in the Mission District, police said. According to Trujillo, Campos is one of about six active members of the 16th Street clique.
Trujillo said that Campos himself offered up context and his thoughts about fellow gang members during a long drive together from North Kern State Prison to San Francisco in December. He was incarcerated at the state prison before he was charged for the mass shooting; when he was arrested in June, he had several outstanding warrants across the Bay Area, including one for a homicide in Oakland.
Campos also comes from a family with many known Sureño ties, according to Trujillo, a fact that defense attorney Seth Meisels used to cast doubt on the certainty of Campos’ gang membership.
Campos’ brother, Jose Escobar, and his father, also named Javier Campos, were both murdered when the younger Campos was around 12 years old. His brother, Jonathan Escobar, a known Sureño, according to Trujillo, was sentenced to 26 years in prison for a gang killing last year. Another known member of the 16th Street gang, Martin Pedroza, is Campos’ cousin.
“It is quite common that people who you believe to be members of the same set or gang … are either blood relatives, or have known each other essentially their entire lives, right?” Meisels asked, noting that gang associations sometimes begin at a young age. “And that is sometimes because the people that they know or are closest with, are associated with that group, right?”
Meisels seemed to suggest that Campos’ only connection to the Sureño gang was familial.
Trujillo agreed, adding that many join gangs for “protection” or “self-preservation.”
The preliminary hearing is expected to conclude tomorrow.
Sheesh, it’s a good thing that criminals tend to be quite stupid, as otherwise convicting them might be more difficult. Bragging on publicly available social media about (a) attempted murder and also (b) gang membership? This one is a done deal. I imagine the only reason his attorney is going through the charade of a preliminary hearing is to try to come up with some possible defense for trial. Good luck with that.