Salinas community looking for answers following fourth officer-involved shooting

Questions, skepticism and fear for some in Salinas, after investigators remain tight-lipped on the police department’s fourth officer-involved shooting this year. Residents are demanding more transparency from local law enforcement and city leaders.

On Thursday, we spoke with a woman who said this fourth officer-involved shooting happened right outside her window. It’s rattled her to the core, because she said her son was killed by local law enforcement almost 14 years ago.

“I thought they were shooting at the house. I was right there at the window and it was so close, I was ducking on the floor. Are they that trigger happy?” said resident Vickie Moon.

Visibly shaken, Moon said it all happened near her home at the corner of Beverly and Fairview in Salinas. The Monterey County District Attorney’s office said 39-year-old Frank Alvarado was shot and killed by Salinas police officers early Thursday morning.

“And then blam, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam. And I ducked on the ground, i was on my knees in the bedroom, peeking out the window, what’s going on because there was black and the flashing lights,” Moon said.

Moon said it’s a scene all too familiar. She said in 2000 her son, Bryan Bomela, was killed by Monterey County Deputies during a confrontation in Prunedale. She said he’d been arrested before, but didn’t have a weapon when he was shot. Since then, she’s had these posters displayed, calling for an end to what she calls local police brutality.

Meanwhile, nether Salinas Police nor the DA’s office-which is now handling the investigation-are offering many details about what happened, if the suspect had a weapon or whether it all went down the way moon describes.

Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillan understands Moon isn’t the only one looking for answers.

“I know that’s frustrating, I get that. I want to answer these questions as badly as the community wants to hear them,” McMillin said.

Residents already looking for answers to this year’s other officer involved shootings, said the same for this one.

“We always hear the other side taking the position of, “please be calm, please, peace, peace, peace” and you know they don’t really go to the bottom of, what the main issue here? The main is issue is transparency,” said community activist Jose Ibarra.

Moon said she has surveillance cameras on her home, to keep an eye on any suspicious activity outside her house. But Moon said they don’t record and didn’t capture Thursday’s officer-involved shooting.