(Woodland, CA) – February 21, 2019 – District Attorney Jeff Reisig announced that defendant, Christian Rizo, 20, of Woodland, was found guilty of four counts for Assault with a Semi-Automatic Weapon on Police Officers, Firing a Gun at an Inhabited Dwelling, and Criminal Street Gang Activity. The jury also found that the defendant personally shot a firearm and committed the crimes to benefit the Varrio Bosque Norteno criminal street gang.
During the week long trial, the jury heard evidence that, in the early morning hours of August 31, 2016, several Woodland Police Officers were investigating a homicide at the Casa del Sol Trailer Park in Woodland. Two gang members, Alexis Velazquez and Justin Gonzales, were ultimately arrested and convicted of homicide. Before his fellow gang members were arrested, the defendant drove by the trailer park, took out a semi-automatic firearm, yelled obscenities at the police officers and fired two shots. One bullet was later recovered from the door of a Woodland Police car. Officers were later able to determine that the bullet traveled missed four separate Woodland Police Officers by a matter of inches.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Vroman, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, said “Mr. Rizo is an incredibly dangerous man who has repeatedly shown that he has no regard for the lives of anyone else if they try to get in the way of him or his fellow gang members.” Rizo, who was previously convicted of a June, 2016 gang related homicide, now faces a second life sentence in addition to the life sentence he received for the earlier murder.
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