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By Lookout Staff

November 3 – An admitted gang member is facing murder charges after Pico Neighborhood residents helped police tie him to the June 28 slaying of Gardena resident Byron Lopez.

Jason Hurtado, a 26-year-old Santa Monica resident, also faces charges of firing at an occupied vehicle and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is being held on $3.57 million bail.

If convicted, Hurtado could face life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the DA’s office, which filed the charges Thursday.

Hurtado has been held in custody since his arrest July 2 after he pulled a gun on an undercover officer in the Pico Neighborhood. He was booked for assault with a deadly weapon and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

Hurtado was then tied to the killing of Lopez, 28, who was gunned down in the area of the 2000 block of Court 19, a gang-riddled pocket of the Pico Neighborhood.

“Since Hurtado’s arrest detectives worked with the community to identify and gather evidence on Hurtado’s involvement in the murder,” said Sgt. Renaldi Thurston, the Police Department spokesman.

“Community members were instrumental in identifying Jason Hurtado as a suspect and clarifying the facts of this case,” Thurston said.

Police responding to a call of shots fired were unable to locate any victims or witnesses at the scene, Thurston said. They soon learned that Lopez had been taken by friends to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injures.

Four days later, police arrested Hurtado after he pointed a gun at the undercover officer who had identified himself as a police officer, Thurston said.

Hurtado tossed the gun away and fled on foot, police said. He was quickly apprehended by officers who recovered the firearm.

The murder charge brought against Hurtado came less than one week after gang violence irrupted in the Pico Neighborhood, which has seen 39 homicides in the past 20 years.

Last weekend, three separate shootings left one man dead and two others injured in what could be part of an escalating gang war involving a Santa Monica and a Venice street gang, according to sources familiar with the incidents.

The shootings started Friday, October 24, when a single shot was fired in the Pico Neighborhood, followed by a shooting in Mar Vista Saturday night that left one man dead and one critically injured and culminating in the shooting of a Santa Monica student in the Pico neighborhood Sunday evening.

In the most serious incident, which took place in Mar Vista on October 25, 25-year-old Venice resident Guillermo Lopez was killed and his 19-year-old friend was critically injured after they were shot multiple times.

Less than 24 hours later, a Santa Monica high school student was shot in the leg near Kansas Avenue and Cloverfield Boulevard across from Virginia Avenue Park in the Pico Neighborhood, according to police.

The shootings may have been sparked by the homicide a month ago of a Venice man at a street fair on Abbott Kinney that was blamed on Santa Monica gang members, police said.

Although the suspects in the targeted gang-related killing are not from Santa Monica, the incident sparked a series of retaliatory shootings, police sources said.

Anyone with additional information on the homicides should call Santa Monica Police Department Detectives at 310.458.8451 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. or the Watch Commander at 310.458.8427 at any time.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call the WeTip hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463).