Two charged in the slaying of two boys
Defendants were implicated in part by social media messages about their involvement
UNION CITY >> Two and a half months after two boys were killed in a hail of gunfire in an elementary school parking lot, a pair of suspects have been charged in the vicious attack that authorities say was meant to inflame a local gang rivalry.
Exactly why the victims, 11-year-old Kevin Hernandez and 14-year-old Sean Withington, were targeted has not been disclosed by investigators, and police said at a news conference Friday that the boys had no affiliation with the two teens accused of killing them.
Jason Cornejo, 18, of Castro Valley and a 17-year-old boy from Hayward were charged Thursday with murder in the Nov. 23 shootings. Records for Cornejo show that he also was charged with potential sentencing enhancements involving multiple killings, the use of a gun, the severity of violence and the belief that the shootings were carried out on behalf of a street gang.
According to the California Department of Justice, the defendants were part of a Hayward gang that has been battling with a rival gang for the past 15 years, re
sulting in “several gang-related homicides and shootings,” including the deaths of Sean and Kevin.
Both defendants were already in jail on unrelated charges when they were formally linked to the shootings after an exhaustive investigation led by Union City police and aided by the state Attorney General’s Office, state DOJ, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office, Hayward police, the California Highway Patrol, and Oakland and Richmond police.
Union City Police Chief Jared Rinetti said the shooting had an immense effect on the community and his own officers, noting that 32 officers spent over 5,300 hours investigating the case.
“Many members of our department have children of the same age, and this horrible, violent crime affected us tremendously,” Rinetti said. “But that is nowhere near the pain and suffering these families have had to endure. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with these families.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra echoed the sentiment, adding that he hopes that the progress in the case can help bring some comfort to the victims’ loved ones.
“A successful investigation, arrest and we hope prosecution of two suspects — while it may not extinguish the anguish, disbelief or apprehension — maybe what it does is bring a sense of direction and purpose that we have to find some resolution to these senseless acts of violence,” Becerra said.
The killings unfolded at 1:26 a.m. Nov. 23, around the time police got multiple 911 calls about gunshots in the area of Sherman Drive and Colgate Drive.
When officers arrived at the Searles Elementary School parking lot in the city’s Decoto neighborhood, they found Sean and Kevin gravely wounded in the parking lot. Sean died at the scene, and Kevin died while being rushed to a local trauma center.
At the scene, police eventually recovered 36 rifle bullet casings and six 9mm handgun bullet casings.
The boys had been inside a minivan in the parking lot when another car pulled into the lot, according to security camera footage reviewed by this news organization. A short time later, as the minivan began to drive away, two separate sets of muzzle flashes can be seen cutting through the darkness, aimed at the departing vehicle, which then slowly collided with a tree.
Cornejo
Police said last month they believed there were two shooters involved, based in part on that video evidence, and announced that they were looking for a car resembling a silver Toyota Camry.
Investigators identified the two defendants on the strength of community tips, videos and other electronic surveillance, Rinetti said Friday.
The charging documents state that the evidence included cellphone data placing the two defendants near the crime scene and the revelation that a “close associate” of the defendants rented a Toyota Camry similar to what was captured on video in the days leading up to the shooting.
Also in the charging documents, police state that they found social media posts about Cornejo buying an AK-47 and a drumstyle, high-capacity magazine, as well as exchanges between him and the co-defendant discussing their involvement in the shooting, and even posts of the juvenile defendant trying to sell a 9mm pistol the day after the shootings.
Perhaps the most incriminating post was an uploaded rap song that police said “glorifies” the defendants’ involvement in the shootings, according to the documents.
That led to search warrants being served Feb. 6 at six locations around the East Bay, including in Hayward, Oakland and Richmond.
During those raids, police said they seized about 40 pounds of marijuana, about 8 pounds of methamphetamine, more than $10,000 in cash, two handguns and three assault weapons, as well as several high-capacity magazines and ammunition, and “other pieces of evidence related to the double murder.”
However, police were careful about saying they recovered weapons that use the same kind of ammunition found in the Nov. 23 shootings, but not necessarily the suspected murder weapons themselves.
“But we’re also not ruling that out,” Union City police Capt. Travis Souza said, who added that there is still the possibility of additional arrests in the case.
Cornejo had been in jail since being arrested Dec. 8 — two weeks after the shooting — after police say he fled from a traffic stop in Union City and ditched his car near a Motel 6 off Whipple Road, according to a probable cause statement. An AK-47 style rifle with a pistol grip and a high-capacity magazine were found in the car he was driving. He is barred from having firearms because of a prior felony conviction.
The reason officers were trying to stop Cornejo that night was because someone called police to report that Cornejo was following him and that the rifle was visible from inside his car, police said.
The slayings shook the community, and family, friends and neighbors gathered to grieve over the loss of the boys the very next day in a grass field next to the parking lot. The city’s mayor, Carol Dutra-Vernaci, said she was “outraged and saddened by the senseless shooting death.”
“We know it will take time for the community to heal from this event,” she said. “But certainly we are safer today with these violent perpetrators off of our streets.”
“We know it will take time for the community to heal from this event. But certainly we are safer today with these violent perpetrators off of our streets.”
— Carol Dutra-Vernaci, Union City mayor