Jakov Dulcich was a well-known grape grower from Delano, California. He was 84 when he was shot and killed while driving his SUV on Browning Road on April 11, 2018. Witnesses described an altercation on the road involving an SUV and a car that appeared to try to hit each other; Dulcich’s SUV later crashed into another vehicle and a passenger from the other car opened fire. The passenger then tried to shoot a witness at point-blank range, but the gun malfunctioned; the witness escaped after a physical struggle and the shooter fled.

Investigators later arrested 24-year-old Mariano Fernandez Perez and charged him with first-degree murder, attempted murder and shooting at an occupied motor vehicle. Court filings said Perez had threatened the witness and that a car registered to Perez’s mother was found burned near the Kern-Tulare county line and matched the suspect vehicle’s description. At trial the witness testified that Perez was not the shooter, producing a hung jury, and the charges were dismissed. Perez was found dead with traumatic injuries on December 3, 2018. Both Dulcich’s killing and Perez’s death remain unresolved.

Did anyone in Delano or along Browning Road see either vehicle or the confrontation that day?