Mario Angel Merino Gonzalez, a 19-year-old Hispanic man from Guadalupe, California, was fatally shot in Santa Maria on May 16, 2021, around 2 a.m. Officers found him lying in the middle of the street near Lincoln and Mill Streets with multiple gunshot wounds; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators say he had been involved in a verbal altercation with a group of people before the shooting. After a month-long investigation, police identified Alfredo Alaniz Jr., a 21-year-old Hispanic man from Santa Maria, as the primary suspect. Alaniz was described as about 5 feet 10 inches, 210 pounds, with black hair, green eyes, an S tattoo on his right cheek and a ship tattoo on the left side of his head; authorities considered him armed and dangerous and sought public help locating him. On July 1, 2021, law enforcement arrested Alfredo Alaniz Jr. in Las Vegas, Nevada, on an outstanding warrant related to the shooting and booked him into a Nevada jail pending extradition to California.

The shooting deeply affected the communities of Santa Maria and Guadalupe, and family and friends remembered the young man for his vibrant spirit. Does anyone with information about the altercation or events around Lincoln and Mill Streets that night have tips to share?