A statewide sweep targeting members of the gang suspected of slaughtering six family members in the Central Valley—including a teenage girl and her 10-month-old son who were shot in the back of the head—led to a predawn gun battle in Goshan between ATF agents and one of two suspects now charged in connection with the massacre on Friday morning.
The pre-dawn raids involving dozens of law enforcement officials from a slew of state and federal agencies were dubbed “Operation Nightmare.” They targeted two men who have been the subject of “around the clock surveillance” since DNA evidence connected the known Norteño gang members to the Jan. 16 execution-style slayings of the family in the poor farming community of Goshen, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said in a press conference Friday morning.
Noah Beard, 25, is suspected of hunting down Alissa Parraz, 16, as she fled on foot cradling her 10-month old Nycholas Parraz, jumping over a fence with her baby. Beard caught up to them in the street and executed the teen mom and her baby boy with gunshots to the back of the head in the street, Boudreaux said. He was taken into custody in Visalia Friday morning without incident.
The second murder suspect, Angel Uriarte, was hit with gunfire as he engaged Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents in a predawn shootout at his home in Goshen. He remains in stable condition, Boudreaux said.
“These baby-killing murderers are off the streets,” he told reporters.
Search warrants were executed by heavily-armed SWAT teams in three locations in Goshen and Visalia, and at several state prisons on Friday morning; a total of eight cells and 16 inmates linked to the Nuestra Familia prison gang were targeted.
“We knew every move they were making,” Boudreaux said of the reputed gang members. “We had them under our wing where we wanted them.”
The sheriff said two of the family members executed in the 3:30 a.m. attack were connected to the rival Sureños gang, 19-year-old Marcos Parraz, who was shot in the head, and his uncle Eladio Parraz, 52, who shot in the stomach; he was the first victim of the killer. Rosa Parraz, the grandmother of Marcos and Alissa, 72, was kneeling next to her bed when she was killed and Jennifer Analia, 50, was shot in her sleep.
“This case is very dark,” said Joshua Jackson, the acting ATF Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco field office. “It comes from the darkest of places.”
The ATF and the FBI both contributed to processing the crime scene, which led to Board and Uriarte, officials said. Both of the suspects are convicted felons, Bordeaux said.
The suspects have been hit with a slew of charges, including murder with a gang enhancement, street terrorism, and gun offenses.
During Friday’s press conference a chilling 911 call placed by one of two women who survived the massacre by hiding in a trailer was played. In the recording, desperate and sobbing, she’s whispering to a 911 dispatcher: “Please hurry. They’re here! They’re here!”
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