BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — They stopped at the food court, visiting Wetzel’s Pretzels and Cinnabon, and shopped at Aeropostale before leaving Valley Plaza mall the evening of May 5.
As they drove through the parking lot in a Toyota Camry, Taeviyon Jamil Wandick, Denell Martray King and Christopher Jamurea Thompson, members of the East Side Crips, came across a man in a Chevy Camaro, according to newly-released reports filed by the California Highway Patrol.
The reports say surveillance footage and GPS ankle monitors show the men followed the Camaro from the mall onto Highway 99 then Highway 58, where witnesses reported men occupying a Toyota fired at the Camaro, causing it to crash east of Union Avenue, the documents say.
The 24-year-old driver was hit by multiple rounds and pronounced dead at the scene.
Wandick, 21, King, 23, and Thompson 19, are charged with first-degree murder and other offenses and held without bail. They’re due back in court May 25.
A witness to the crash told the CHP the Camaro and Camry appeared to be “road raging” along Highway 58 when the Camaro careened right then swerved and crashed into the center divider. Stopping to check on the driver, witnesses saw multiple bullet holes had pierced the car.
One witness described seeing the Camry at the mall. The CHP obtained surveillance footage of the suspects there and shared it with a Bakersfield police sergeant who recognized them as gang members with whom the department had multiple contacts, according to the documents.
Police also informed CHP that King and Wandick were on parole and wearing ankle monitors.
King’s GPS ankle monitor coincided with footage taken at the mall and tracked him entering northbound Highway 99 and exiting onto Highway 58, the documents say.
“At approximately 6:33 p.m., the time of call for this incident, King’s GPS showed him traveling eastbound on Highway 58 at 92 mph, corroborating witness statements of the Toyota traveling at a high rate of speed,” an investigator wrote.
Wandick and King were arrested May 7, Wandick in the 2000 block of Larcus Avenue and King in the 1400 block of Kentucky Street. Thompson was arrested the night of May 8 in the 4300 block of Parkwood Court.
