In early July, Janneli Garcia completed an associate degree at Heald College in Salinas and set her sights on becoming a paralegal. On July 23, the same day her curly-haired toddler was accepted into a daycare, Garcia got a call for an interview.
At last, she told Facebook friends, she was ready to start her career. “Feeling confident,” she posted.
On July 28, Garcia changed her Facebook profile picture to a blurry shot taken in a mirror. She wore a button-up blazer and smiled broadly for the camera, her bleached-blond hair tumbling over her shoulders. “Looking good,” a friend commented after midnight.
Seven hours later, Garcia was murdered in a South Salinas motel room.
Since July 24, a spate of violence has swept Salinas, resulting in five deaths in barely as many days. The killings started with the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy in East Salinas. The next day, gunmen opened fire on three men changing a tire on the city’s outskirts, killing one.
Then on July 26 police, acting on a tip, tried to arrest gang member and wanted parolee Juan Luis Acuna. Acuna reportedly turned on them with weapons in each hand, and nine officers returned fire, killing him on East Market Street.
Two days later police found 23-year-old Garcia, who had been shot in a room that had been set ablaze at Willow Lodge Motel across the street from Salinas High.
On the night of July 29, a 60-year-old carpenter working in an East Salinas house was shot to death.
Some of the deaths are connected, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the cases but unauthorized to speak about them and requested anonymity.
Southern gangs are vying to fill a power vacuum left by northern gangs, which were crippled after a joint law enforcement operation in May led to the arrests of several alleged gang leaders, the source says.
“The Sureños and the Mexican Mafia feel the Norteños and the Nuestra Familia are weak right now and are seizing the opportunity to gain control,” the source says. “Anytime you remove leadership from an organization, there is a vacuum.”
Salinas Police Cmdr. Vincent Maiorana would not confirm the source’s statements: “It would be wrong for me to speculate on such a serious matter at this time.”
Garcia’s life had already been stricken by loss. In mid-July she told Facebook friends she was visiting the grave of “Uri,” who – based on older photos – appears to be Uriel Gonzalez Padilla, a 26-year-old killed in an apparent gang shooting in 2011. That same year she posted “RIP” with the photo of another young friend. She also frequently mentioned her father, who died of cancer. In November 2011, Garcia wrote: “Its so hard when u loose [sic] 3 people u love so much in just 16 months… Johnny, Uri, and now my Dad!!!!”
Still, Garcia kept an upbeat public profile; her status updates were often words of hope. “You can change the future and that’s a beautiful thing about life,” one reads. “Each day you will learn something so that you keep growing to be a better person.”
Garcia’s death, now another number in a rapidly rising Salinas murder rate, may or may not live on in the collective memory of a city hardened by violence. But her Facebook page, open to the public, is one place for friends to remember the 2008 Everett Alvarez High School grad.
On the profile picture taken before her death, another comment reads: “Rest in peace my friend. I cant [sic] believe this is happening :(“