GILROY
– Police have identified a second suspect in the last week’s
shooting of a Gilroy man who was left for dead on Hecker Pass
Highway.
GILROY – Police have identified a second suspect in the last week’s shooting of a Gilroy man who was left for dead on Hecker Pass Highway.
Police are now searching the Gilroy area for Silvester Herrera, 21, along with his 23-year-old brother David “Orozco” Herrera. Both men are from Gilroy and are expected to be armed and dangerous.
Detectives with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department have been searching Gilroy since Jan. 16 for David Herrera, who allegedly shot an “associate” three times at close range on Hecker Pass Highway near Pole Line Road around 1 a.m. Jan. 14 and tossed him over an embankment, leaving him for dead.
Investigators declined to release the victim’s name, but did say he is from Gilroy. He remains in a San Jose area hospital recovering from multiple bullet wounds, although his status is unclear.
“We’ve been in contact with and interviewed all of (Herrera’s) known associates in the area,” said Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Dean Baker Friday morning. “It appears that he’s holed up somewhere in the area. … The weapon used in the shooting was never recovered, so we can assume he’s armed and dangerous.”
Local law agencies were alerted to the shooting by a 911 call at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday when a passerby driving on Hecker Pass Highway saw the bloodied victim crawling from a ditch on the side of the road, police said.
According to police, the victim was riding in the same car with the Herrera brothers before he was shot three times at close range and dumped over the side of the road.
Emergency crews from the South Santa Clara County Fire District responded to the scene thinking it was an automobile accident and later alerted the Sheriff’s department to the gunshot wounds.
A motive for the shooting is still being determined.
“We don’t know if it was drugs or gangs or something else,” Baker said.
David Herrera does have a prior criminal history, but “nothing significant,” Baker said.
Thought to be the trigger-man in the shooting, David Herrera is described as a 5-foot-5-inch, 170-pound Latino man with brown eyes and black hair. A description of Silvester Herrera could not be obtained by press time.
Sheriff’s Department investigators are also working with the Gilroy Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies to find the Herreras.
Anyone with information about Herrera’s whereabouts should call Sheriff’s detectives Dean Baker or Dave Gordon at 299-2211.
