On June 9, 2023, at about 2:35 p.m. officers and firefighters in Los Banos responded to a shooting near Pacheco Boulevard and Tanner Road. They found 36-year-old Peter Robert Noriega Jr. with a gunshot wound to his upper body; he was taken to Memorial Hospital Los Banos and pronounced dead.

Detectives identified 28-year-old Jay Romero of Los Banos as the suspect. Authorities say an argument between Noriega Jr. and Romero escalated and resulted in the fatal shooting. Romero was located in Merced later that evening, taken into custody with Merced Police assistance, and booked into the Merced County Jail on a murder charge. The Los Banos Police Department called this the city’s first homicide of 2023 and is continuing its investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Stephen O’Day at 209-827-2554 or submit an anonymous tip through the Los Banos Police Department website or Merced Area Crime Stoppers. Did anyone in the area see or hear anything around Pacheco Boulevard and Tanner Road that afternoon?