Coachella Shooting Victim Was No Stranger To Authorities

COACHELLA -An 18-year-old man who was gunned down in Coachella was arrested twice in the weeks before he was killed and was known to local law enforcement as a tagger, police reported today.

Max Matthew Grajiola of Indio was shot at 2:15 a.m. Sunday near the 5000 block of Calle Mendoza and died at a hospital.

The victim, who had been shot several times, was found at the end of the cul-de-sac on Corte Olivera, said sheriff’s Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela.

Neighbors said there was a party in the neighborhood where Grajiola was shot, and he may have been coming from there, but the sheriff’s department has not released a motive for the shooting.

According to jail records, Grajiola was released on $5,000 bail two days before he was killed. He had been arrested Thursday by Indio police on suspicion of possession of a loaded firearm.

Grajiola was also arrested Jan. 10 on suspicion of possession of burglary tools. He was released the next day on $2,500 bail.

“He was known for us because obviously he was tagger and he was tagging and he was arrested for that,” said Ben Guitron of the Indio Police Department.

Guitron called Grajiola “very transitory,” saying he “would go from Indio to La Quinta to East Palm Desert. He added that Grajiola’s family was known to go from apartment to apartment.