County Announces Gang Task Force Tip line

A string of gang crimes in the desert has neighborhoods on edge.

The recent case of a 16-year-old Cathedral City mother shot dead while holding her baby has law enforcement asking the public to call in with any tips that might help.

The Riverside County Gang Task Force just announced a new tip line NUMBER for non-emergencies.

Tips can be left anonymous at anytime.

“Jail, hospital or in a grave,” said Jose Perez, 22, mentor at the Boys and Girls Club of the Coachella Valley. “Those are the only three places a gang will ever take you to.”

But it took years for Perez to figure that out.

He lives in Coachella with his wife and baby boy.

“(Gangs) are not going to make you rich,” he said. “They’re not going to make you famous. It’s not good.”

Perez left his gang more than a year ago.

He was selling drugs and eventually started to use his supply, which took him into a deep depression.

He’s been a member of the Boys and Girls Club since he was 16 years old.

His boxing coach took him under his wings, helped him clean up and introduced him to church.

Perez is now clean and mentoring kids at the same club that saved him.

“If somebody else wouldn’t cared about a kid like me,” he said. “Then I probably wouldn’t even be here doing this interview.”

Perez tells his kids to stay away from gangs.

But he couldn’t quite bring himself to say that it’s OK to report gang activity to authorities even if it could save lives.

“It’s not that I’m scared,” he said. “Its just the mentality I grew up with and I still haven’t broke, you know what I mean?”

Authorities say that “no snitching” mentality is common in the desert.

The Cathedral City police are investigating a gang-related shooting that left two dead and four injured on Tuesday including a 2-month-old baby.

The Indio police can’t confirm whether or not a recent rash of homicides were the work of gangs.

But authorities are asking the public to get involved whenever a crime is committed.

“They say, ‘well, if I say something, they’re gonna know,'” said Ben Guitron, with the Indio Police Department. “There’s all kinds of tip information. Coachella Valley Crimestoppers is a perfect example. Information that’s received on a tip line anonymously is very helpful to any case.”

Law enforcement officials want criminals off the streets especially if they’ve taken another life, he said.

“Here’s the problem,” said Guitron. “Someone’s life is lost at the hands of another or there’s a violent crime that’s occurred — is that person gonna do it again? They have no respect for anyone. So, why are they going to have respect for someone even in their own family?”

“I teach them to stay focused in what they want to do their goals, their dreams,” said Perez. “I try to teach them everything I wasn’t taught until I got here to the Boys and Girls Club.”

If you have any non-emergency information regarding gang activity, visit www.riversidecountygtf.org and fill-out a Gang Task Force Tip Form, or call the anonymous tip line: (951) 922-7601.