A man was shot on Shaffer Road in Winton on Tuesday afternoon, and by the next night, two people identified as persons of interest in the case had been tracked down roughly 15 miles away in Turlock. Deputies arrived to find the victim suffering from a single gunshot wound and took him to an area hospital, but his condition still had not been made public as of Wednesday.
According to CBS News, the Merced County Sheriff's Office said the shooting happened Tuesday afternoon along Shaffer Road in Winton. Investigators have not disclosed how the victim is doing, saying only that they could not yet provide information about his condition.
Investigators identified the two people of interest as 25-year-old Joanna Mendoza and 44-year-old Samuel Rojas, and they alerted surrounding law enforcement agencies to watch for the pair. That outreach paid off quickly: Turlock police officers located and detained both Mendoza and Rojas by 11 p.m. Wednesday. Turlock sits in Stanislaus County, northwest of the Winton crime scene, and both suspects were transported back into Merced County custody after being found.
Bookings and Possible Charges
Rojas was booked into Merced County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder, while Mendoza was booked on suspicion of being an accessory to attempted murder, per the sheriff's office account relayed by the same CBS report. California's attempted-murder statute, Penal Code section 664, applies when a crime is not completed or a suspect is intercepted, provided a direct but ineffectual act toward the offense can be shown, according to California Legislative Information. Separately, the accessory statute, Penal Code section 32, covers someone who harbors, conceals or aids a person after a felony with the intent to help that person avoid arrest, trial, conviction or punishment, while knowing of the underlying felony, as laid out by California Legislative Information.
A Separate Shooting Also Shook Winton
The Shaffer Road case is not the only recent shooting to rattle the small Merced County community. The Merced Sun-Star reported that a man was left in critical condition after being shot multiple times at Winton Community Park, with deputies called to the scene just before 8 p.m. That shooting unfolded in the park's parking lot while a nearby Little League baseball practice was underway, and the victim remained critical at the hospital the next morning, with no other injuries reported.
In connection with that park shooting, the Merced Sun-Star noted that the Sheriff's Office served three search warrants in the 1000 block of Front Street in Livingston.
As of the latest reporting, authorities have not released further details on what led to the Shaffer Road shooting, and the victim's condition in that case remains unconfirmed.
