A Community Forum and Peace March organized to address the issue of gang-related violence amid simmering tension over the recent homicide of Jesse Silos, 30, will be held in Gilroy on Friday and Saturday.
Silos’ mother, Christina Silos, Mayor Don Gage, Councilman Peter Arellano and other community leaders will attend the forum from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday in the MACSA Youth Gym located at 277 IOOF Ave. in Gilroy. Silos and her family will also be at the Peace March in San Ysidro Park on Saturday. The peace march will start at 10 a.m. in San Ysidro Park and attendees will march around the east side neighborhood where the shooting took place before returning to the park.
“There’s a lot of hurt and anger on the street,” said Rebeca Armendariz, a Board member of CARAS, a community outreach organization involved with both events. Jesse was Rebeca’s cousin.
Armendariz explained how CARAS, along with Victory Outreach Church and the Mexican American Community Services Agency known as MACSA, is working to keep the streets calm by sitting down for one-on-one meetings with people who are struggling to keep their desire for revenge under control.
“We’ve been working very hard on a personal basis,” Armendariz said. “One person at a time, one day at a time.”
Reymundo J. Armendariz, Rebeca’s brother, is also a community organizer with CARAS. He sees the meeting as not only a reaction to the shooting, but also a proactive effort to send out a message.
“We don’t want any more acts of violence in Old Gilroy,” Reymundo stated. “Retaliation isn’t the way.”
The forum on Friday night will be more than just discussing crime, said Reymundo. There will be break-out sessions lead by local experts about how to make children understand the importance of education; what to do if your child has joined a gang; how to keep them out of a gang; and the role that parents need to play.
“We want to connect families with resources,” Reymundo explained.
Even though an accurate guess at attendance for the forum and peace march is difficult to predict, initial responses to the canvassing of the east side neighborhood around Chestnut Street had been “positive,” said Rebeca.
Teams of volunteers have begun dropping off fliers in Spanish and English in the neighborhood and fliers have also been handed out at local schools.
Rebeca is concerned that every minute that passes is one closer to frayed tempers snapping.
“I think we’ve waited too long,” she said. “Luckily nothing has happened.”
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Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the violent gang-related killing of Jesse Emmanuel Silos, the 30-year-old man who was gunned down last week in front of a home on the 7300 block of Chestnut Street in Gilroy.
Jose Morales Cortez, 21, and a 17-year-old juvenile, whose identity is being withheld, were scheduled for arraignment at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the South County Courthouse in Morgan Hill. Both are being charged by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office with murder and attempted murder. The San Jose branch of the South County District Attorney’s Office is handling the case, according to Assistant DA Scott Tsui. No specific prosecutor has been assigned to the case, Tsui added. Cortez and the juvenile suspect are from Gilroy.
A third suspect, 21-year-old Juan Guerra of Gilroy, is still outstanding. Police describe Guerra as 5 feet tall, 140 pounds and having black hair and brown eyes. Espinoza says Guerra “should be considered armed and dangerous.”
The three suspects are allegedly connected with the April 3 double shooting, which was “motivated by gang affiliation,” police say, and cost Silos his life. Police say the two victims were shot multiple times.
