A father allegedly handed his teenage son a gun in order to carry out a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, according to police.
Roberto Martinez took his 14-year-old son on a graffiti spree in downtown LA on February 10 and later came across Kevin Rivera.
Five shots were fired through a car’s passenger window, wounding two other people and killing Rivera, according to an LAPD search warrant affidavit obtained by The Los Angeles Times.
The teen was allegedly holding the gun.
Martinez, 43, and his son have been charged with murdering Rivera, whom Martinez believed to belong to a rival gang, the newspaper reported.
Martinez has pleaded not guilty, though he has been in and out of prison since 2005 for possessing drugs and guns, court records have shown. According to the LAPD, he is a member of a Hollywood gang called The Magicians’ Club, or TMC, and has the nickname “Stranger.”
Details of his son’s case are not public because of his age.
Following his arrest, Martinez told a fellow prisoner details of a shooting, claiming that “four people got dropped and one died,” according to the affidavit obtained by The Times.
He added that the victim was from Playboys, another Los Angeles based gang, the affidavit said.
“My son did what he had to do, dog,” Martinez said in a recorded call, according to the affidavit. “Honestly I tried to stop him. I tried to grab the gun.”
However, according to the affidavit, detectives allege that Martinez handed his son the weapon that he used to kill Rivera.
The weapon was later recovered in Wilmington, California, after a man allegedly tossed the gun while trying to escape LAPD officers. The .40-caliber Glock recovered during the pursuit was tested and matched to the one used to kill Rivera, according to police.
WhatsApp messages on Alvarez’s phone allegedly show that he bought the Glock for $800 five days after Rivera was fatally shot, the affidavit stated.
