Jazy Sotelo Garcia, 17, left, and his brother Angel Sotelo Garcia, 15, in a recent family photo. Both were shot and killed at a party on Saturday in North Oakland. (Courtesy of Melani Garcia)
OAKLAND — An 18-year-old has been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in connection with the October party shooting that killed two brothers and left two others hospitalized with injuries, authorities said.
Joaquin Godoy, of Oakland, was charged Tuesday with murder in the deaths of brothers Jazy Sotelo Garcia, 17, and Angel Sotelo Garcia, 15, at the Oct. 1, 2022 house party. A second suspect, arrested in March, has not yet been charged, authorities said.
Godoy is suspected of being one of at least two shooters to open fire at the party. Police believe one of the victims was mistaken for a rival gang member, but that no one that was struck by gunfire actually had any gang ties. The brothers had called a parent to pick them up from the party so they wouldn’t break their curfews shortly before they were killed around 10 p.m., authorities say.
Godoy, who turned 18 just one month after the shooting, was charged in juvenile court. Prosecutors have not yet made a final decision whether to move to try him as an adult, but new District Attorney Pamela Price pledged to not charge juveniles in adult court during her successful 2022 campaign.
The shooting occurred at a house party at an Airbnb rental home on the 900 block of Apgar Street in North Oakland, police say. The suspected shooters are alleged to be part of a subset of a Northern California street gang based in Oakland.
During the investigation, police arrested the second suspected shooter, who was also 17 at the time, on suspicion of possessing an assault rifle found in a guitar case after a police chase. They also arrested 18-year-old Jesse Moreno on gun charges during the same investigation, though Moreno has not been named as a suspect in the double homicide case.
Authorities allege that Moreno belongs to the same Norteño subset as Godoy and the second teen murder suspect. On Jan. 23, several members of the subset were also present at a music video shoot held in Oakland for Acito, a Stockton rapper, where one person was killed and six others were injured in a mass shooting. Authorities said gunfire erupted after alleged members of a rival Sureño subset happened by the video shoot and opened fire, causing at least one person in the crowd to shoot back.
Originally published at Nate Gartrell