By Wes Bowers
Source Lodi News-Sentinel, Calif.
Lodi Police Department officers stopped a shooting before it happened at an annual Halloween event in downtown over the weekend.
Lt. Sean Blandford said the department had information that a group of four armed individuals were planning to attend the Zombie Walk and Halloween Faire Sunday night.
The event began at 4 p.m. at the Idol Beer Works on Sacramento Street, and Blandford said officers located the suspected assailants just before 7 p.m.
"They weren't there to shoot at random people," he said. "They were there specifically to target rival gang members. So we arrived and watched for a little bit, and 20 minutes later, we saw a group of guys matching exactly what we were told walk by on the street."
Officers attempted to stop the group in the post office parking lot on School Street, Blandford said, but one of them ran to a vehicle and fled the scene.
He led officers on a chase down Cherokee Lane that was terminated when he headed west on Kettleman Lane.
A second member of the group, later identified as a 17-year-old boy, attempted flee on foot but was immediately detained. Officers found a shotgun in his possession, Blandford said.
The other two remained on scene, and one of them, later identified as 18-year-old Sylvan Catalan of Lodi, had a concealed loaded handgun in his possession, Blandford said.
Another 17-year-old boy was arrested and later released, he said, adding no weapons were found on him.
The man who fled in a vehicle had something in his waistband that appeared to be heavy, and officers believe it may have been a handgun, Blandford said.
Catalan and the two 17-year-olds were arrested on suspicion of multiple weapons charges, including carrying a concealed weapon, carrying a loaded weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm, Blandford said.
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