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The Spectrum . Redwood City's Monthly Magazine
News Briefs
TEENAGER FATALLY SHOT DURING RWC BAR BRAWL
An 18-year-old Redwood City teen and two other men were fatally shot following
a brawl at a Redwood City bar, according to the San Mateo County Coroner's
Office. Redwood City residents Humberto Calderon Jr., 18, and Jesus Hernandez,
28, along with East Palo Alto resident Hemerenciano Mendoza, 38, were all fatally
shot at Headquarters Bar, the coroner's office reported. Redwood City police
officers responded to the bar, located at 895 Second Ave., after hearing reports of
shots fired. Upon arrival, officers discovered two men on the outside patio who
had been shot to death, police reported. Shortly thereafter, officers observed a
vehicle speeding out of the bar's parking lot toward Woodside Road. It later
crashed at the intersection of Chestnut Street and Bay Road, according to police.
Witnesses reportedly told police that the vehicle may have been linked to the
shooting. The driver and the passenger were taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, a third gunshot victim was pronounced dead at a local hospital, and a
fourth gunshot victim was treated at a hospital for gunshot wounds to his
abdomen. The alleged triggerman in the shooting, 26-year-old San Jose resident
Rolando Fernandez, is being held in the San Mateo County Jail on suspicion of
three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in connection with
the fatal shooting, according to San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney
Martin Murray. Fernandez, who remains in custody on no-bail status, was expected
to be arraigned on April 18, Murray said.
NANNY TO STAND TRIAL FOR ALLEGEDLY SHAKING BABY
A pediatrician from the University of California, San Francisco, testified that doctors
are hopeful a Redwood Shores newborn who was seriously injured after his
nanny allegedly shook him will not suffer any brain damage. In San Mateo County
court, following a preliminary hearing for Minerva Rojas, 28, of East Palo Alto,
Judge Beth Freeman found there was sufficient evidence to hold Rojas for trial.
Rojas pleaded not guilty March 22 to child abuse, felony inflicting corporal injury
upon a child and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the alleged
March 16 shaking incident, the San Mateo County district attorney's office
reported. Redwood City police arrested Rojas after they responded to a 911 call
and found the 2-and-a-half-month-old boy, named Thomas, unconscious and suffering
from two skull fractures, retinal hemorrhaging and subdural hemorrhaging.
Rojas originally claimed she left the baby in another room lying on a couch while
she made lunch for his 2-and-a-half-year-old sister. She said by the time she
returned, Thomas had already rolled off the couch, falling about 19 inches to the
carpeted floor below, Redwood City police detective Mike Reynolds testified today.
She said, "essentially, that the child had fallen off the couch," Reynolds said. "She
came into the room and found the child face up next to the couch. She said she
picked him up and shook him and tapped him on the face," for several minutes.
During a three-hour interview of Rojas conducted by Reynolds and another detective,
Rojas' "story changed several times," according to Reynolds. She said "when
she picked Thomas up she had the phone in her hand and possibly she may have
hit him," accidentally with it, Reynolds said. Rojas later told investigators that the
baby may have been hit in the head as she opened the door to a refrigerator. She
also said the baby fell after she tripped on a toy, Reynolds said. The prosecution
alleges that Rojas threw the young boy after becoming frustrated. Rojas allegedly
admitted to shaking the boy, using a stuffed bear to demonstrate to police.
However, her attorney, Randolph Moore, says she did so to awaken him after he
fell from the couch. "I don't think that this case fits the facts of a shaken baby
case," Moore said. However, UCSF pediatrician Christopher Stewart said, "It's very
unusual for children to have fractures from a short fall like that." Stewart said the
injuries that Thomas sustained were likely caused by more than "the force that a
normal caretaker would use." "Anyone else watching it would say that's not something
you should be doing to a baby," Stewart said. Rojas, who remains in custody
in lieu of $1 million bail, was to appear in court for her arraignment on April 18
at 8:30 a.m.
minor under the age of 14 by use of force, violence or the threat of bodily harm,
the San Mateo County District Attorney's office reported. Koi molested his niece
from August 1999, when she was 7 years old, until February 2005, at which time
she was 13, the district attorney's office reported. The assaults included oral copulation,
sexual intercourse and forcible rape, according to the district attorney's
office. The assaults occurred in Sacramento County, at the victim's Rancho
Cordova home, and in Redwood City.
RWC WOMAN WHO ATTACKED POLICE WHILE PREGNANT SENTENCED
A Redwood City woman was sentenced to four years in prison in a San Mateo
County courtroom for attacking two police officers with a baseball bat while they
attempted to detain her mother for theft in 2005. Shakeyma Brooks, 24, was convicted
on Jan. 10 of five counts of assault with a deadly weapon in connection
with the April 1 attack. At the time of the assault Brooks was eight months pregnant.
Her mother was being arrested under suspicion of theft at a Foods Co. grocery
store in the 1400 block of Broadway Street in Redwood City, the San Mateo
County District Attorney's Office reported. Brooks ran up to the arresting officers
and began swinging at them with a baseball bat in an attempt to free her mother.
She then went back to her car and drove at the officers twice in hope of freeing
her mother, the district attorney's office reported. Upon her arrest Brooks claimed
the officers were abusing her mother and that she attacked them in self-defense.
Brooks has remained in custody in lieu of $350,000 bail since her arrest.
CHP FAULTS PEDESTRIAN IN REDWOOD CITY FATAL CRASH
A pedestrian was killed Monday night on a northbound U.S. Highway 101 connector
in Redwood City after trying to take a shortcut to the market, according to
the California Highway Patrol. The eastbound Woodside Expressway exit was
closed for more than two hours as the CHP investigated the incident. A 39-yearold
man was hit on the off-ramp at approximately 9:48 p.m. by a 1989 Volvo
sedan. He was with two other men who had just climbed over a freeway perimeter
fence from East Bayshore Road. The men were trying to get to the Foods Co.
on Broadway Street, according to the CHP. A Sig-Alert issued at 10:11 p.m. was
canceled at 12:39 a.m.
TEEN KILLED ON CALTRAIN TRACKS IN RWC
The San Mateo County Coroner's Office has identified the victim of a fatal accident
on the Caltrain tracks in Redwood City as 19-year-old Hayward resident Jose
Alvarez. Alvarez and a group of people were crossing Caltrain tracks near Stafford
and F streets, according to Caltrain spokesman Jonah Weinberg. Weinberg said the
group tried to discourage Alvarez from trying to cross in front of an oncoming
northbound train before he was struck. The group was not at a marked crossing
or Caltrain station, Weinberg noted. The incident marked the second death on
Caltrain tracks that day and the sixth so far this year. That morning, a man
jumped in front of a northbound train at the Mountain View station, according to
Weinberg.
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MAN SENTENCED TO 16 YEARS PRISON FOR MOLESTATION
A Redwood City man was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a San Mateo County
courtroom after pleading no contest to molesting his young niece numerous times
over a six-year period. Willie Peter Koi, 24, was sentenced on Friday after he pleaded
no contest on Jan. 23 to five counts of lewd and lascivious acts upon a minor
under the age of 14 and one count of committing lewd and lascivious acts upon a