Charges filed against 16-year-old suspect in deadly Hanford shooting

HANFORD, Calif. (KFSN) -- Charges have now been filed against a 16-year-old suspect accused of a deadly shooting in Hanford this week.

A small memorial of balloons and candles is now in place at the Hanford intersection where Cruz Avalos was shot to death Wednesday afternoon.

"I don't know why this is happening. There's too much violence in the Valley," said Mike Adrian Jimenez, Cruz's cousin.

Jimenez is now reflecting on what he will miss the most about Cruz.

"His laughter, smile. His smile. He was real happy," said Jimenez.

Cruz's mother, Veronica Parker tells Action News her son was quote, "my old soul, he kept us laughing. He always made us laugh. He was our jokester." End quote.

The 23-year-old was just minutes from returning to his shift at Borba's Auto Body Shop when he was shot inside his car while turning from Lacey Boulevard onto 10th Avenue.

Security surveillance footage shows the moments a black Nissan Versa drives alongside Cruz's white car.

The video shows the Versa speed off, as Cruz's car comes to a complete stop.

Several hours later, Kings County deputies responded to a call of a person shot on Santa Rosa Rancheria near Lemoore. The deputies spotted two people running in the parking lot of the Tachi Palace Casino Resort.

"Deputies stopped both subjects and was able to quickly identify the 16-year-old male subject as a subject that the Hanford Police Department had identified and their homicide," said Kings County Sheriff David Robinson.

Authorities believe the teen was both the driver and the shooter in the Hanford homicide... and they say he has a history with law enforcement.

"We've received a referral from the probation department. Our offices had an opportunity to review the information in the referral and there was a charging decision made," explained Kings County District Attorney Sarah Hacker.

Hacker says she is limited in the amount of information her office can disclose on cases involving juvenile offenders - but believes there must be accountability.

"Juvenile offenders like any other offenders can commit terrible, horrific crimes and those crimes affect victims the same as if an adult offender had committed those crimes," said Hacker.

The 16-year-old suspect is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, and that's when we expect to hear what charges he's facing.

As for the victim's family, they anticipate a large outpouring of support for Cruz during a vigil at 10th Avenue and Lacey Boulevard on Friday night.

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