2014 Coachella Valley homicides top last year’s numbers

Indio tops the list of most murders committed in the Coachella Valley this year.

“So far this year we’ve had six homicides,” said Sgt. Daniel Marshall, of Indio Police Department. “Last year we had three.”

Indio averages five to six homicides each year.

Across the Coachella Valley there have been 20 homicides reported in 2014 so far, compared to 15 in all of 2013. Police departments report four homicides in Coachella, three in Desert Hot Springs, two in Palm Springs, and one in each city including Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Mecca, Thousand Palms and one in an unincorporated area of Riverside County near Indio, according to Alberto Martinez, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department public information officer.

Police continue to look for answers in one homicide in Coachella and the most recent murder of Juan Ceballos, 20, in Mecca.

Marshall said Indio police arrested suspects in all the murder cases this year except one. Officers continue to look for who shot and killed 20-year-old adrian ramirez at the mountain view garden apartments in january.

Other crimes in the city declined.

Marshall said that’s thanks to the department’s team effort and community outreach.

“The proof of how effective our programs are is the reduction of the other crime statistics so far year to date,” said Marshall.