Cannery Row Home To Gang Members

Gang hits, knife fights, it just aint as safe anymore.

The gunman who Monterey police believe murdered a 28-year-old man on Cannery Row last month was identified Tuesday as Jorge Luis Mendoza.

The murder victim, Raul Melendez of Monterey, was followed from the restaurant to the Cannery Row Parking Garage on Wave Street at 1:40 a.m. on Nov. 23. He was shot multiple times. He was transported from the bloody scene to Natividad’s trauma center, where he died.

Monterey police also released the names of the men who were behind a double stabbing during a fight at the Blue Fin Billiards and Cafe at 685 Cannery Row.

Joel Robledo, 40, of Salinas and Frank Guzman II, 27, of Castroville, stabbed each other while fighting on Dec. 3.

Police described the two men as “rival gang members from Castroville and Salinas.”

Cannery Row Home To Gang Members

Shootings And Stabbings On The Row Identified

Just because it’s not Salinas or Watsonville doesn’t make it any safer.

Jorge Luis Mendoza, 21, is wanted by the Monterey Police Department as the possible culprit in the killing of Raul Melendez, 28, who was shot Nov. 23 at the entrance to the Cannery Row parking garage on Wave Street.

Monterey police detectives say Mendoza is a gang member who most recently lived in Salinas. He’s currently on parole for assault with a deadly weapon and is considered armed and dangerous.

Melendez suffered several gunshot wounds and was transported to Natividad Medical Center, where he died of his injuries.

Monterey investigators also identified the men who stabbed each other Saturday at the Blue Fin Billiards and Café, as Joel Robledo, 40, of Salinas and Frank Guzman, 27, of Castroville. Both men were transported to Natividad Medical Center for their injuries.

Shootings And Stabbings On The Row Identified

Cannery Row Stabbings Tie Score

Both men got stabby and stabbed each other. No winner in this knife fight.

Blue Fin

The double stabbing comes a little more than a week after a man was shot and killed in the Cannery Row parking garage. Hober said this is not an uptick in violence in Monterey and that police have no reason to believe the two incidents are related. The only commonalities between the incidents are time of night and location.

“I don’t think this is specific to Monterey. I don’t think there is an uptick,” Hober said. “I think that what’s happening is two incidents that happened close to each other, where it started in the bar venue and resulted in the violence.”

Cannery Row Stabbings Tie Score