Lodi police arrest man in Tuesday’s deadly shooting
Officers from the Lodi Police Department on Wednesday arrested a suspect in a shooting that left one young man dead and another wounded.
At approximately 1:20 p.m. Wednesday, Lodi police with help from the California Highway Patrol and the San Joaquin County Sheriff ’s Office stopped a car belonging to Steven Vallejo, 29, of Lodi, in the area of Highway 99 and Mariposa Way in Lodi, according to Lodi Police Sgt. Michael Manetti, and arrested him on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
One of the victims, identified by his family and confirmed by Deputy Ezequiel Peña of the San Joaquin County Sheriff ’s Office as Rodrigo Ingnacio, 23, was pronounced dead on the scene after being shot on North Sacramento Street Tuesday night, Manetti said in a press release on Wednesday, and a 20-year-old man was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.
The second fatal shooting in Lodi this month, Manetti said that Ignacio’s death is not believed to be connected to the death of Ruben Rodriguez Jr., 31, who was identified by his family and confirmed by Peña as the victim of a fatal shooting on the 700 block of West Vine Street last Friday night.
“We believe the second shooting had a gang element. That hasn’t been confirmed, but at this point it doesn’t look like the two shootings are connected,” Manetti said. “We know enough to know that these aren’t random shootings. We don’t have a motive for the second shooting, but we believe we have a motive for the first. And we do not believe that there is any heightened threat to the community.”