Investigators in the double homicide of a man and his 7-month-old son now believe that the father and child were the targets of a brutal gang hit -- and not the accidental victims of a home-invasion robbery, Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said Monday.
The 21-year-old father, Sean Paul Aquitania Sr., was affiliated with the Norteño gang, according to the sheriff, and he may have been involved in recent criminal activity.
"We believe he was involved in home-invasion robberies," McGinness said when pressed for details in an interview. "These tragedies are quite possibly a byproduct of bad choices and criminal activity on the part of Sean Sr."
In a crime that has outraged the community, Sean Aquitania Sr. and Sean Jr. were gunned down Sept. 14 at a residence in southeast Sacramento. The father was shot and killed inside the house. The baby was shot once in the head as he sat outside, still buckled in his car seat.
Initially, investigators said Aquitania had no criminal history and had happened onto the scene of a home-invasion robbery during a social visit.
Aquitania's gang affiliation eluded detectives in the early days of the investigation because his name didn't appear in the department's database of gang members, according to McGinness.
But, the sheriff said, further investigation turned up Aquitania's gang affiliation as well as possible criminal activity.
Members of the Aquitania family took exception Monday to the sheriff's characterization of the young father. Aimee Aquitania, a cousin of the victims, said the family was unaware of any gang affiliation or criminal activity.
"We don't believe that he was involved in something that led to him being targeted," said Aimee Aquitania, a family spokeswoman. "It's shocking information."
Whatever the motive for the killings, McGinness stressed, the father and son are crime victims whose deaths are being investigated with vigor by his department.
In his 28 years in law enforcement, he said, he's never seen such a heartless crime: the deliberate execution of a baby.
"This is a brutal, calculated, thought-out, planned, cold-blooded murder of an infant," said McGinness. "The person who did this is incredibly cold and without conscience."
The incident began shortly before 2 p.m. on that Friday. When Aquitania Sr. arrived at the rented house on Country Greens Court, he was forced inside at gunpoint by two assailants, detectives say. The baby was left in Aquitania's Chevrolet Impala.
Two residents of the house were inside and witnessed Aquitania's shooting, according to police.
Sacramento attorney Mike Bowman, who represents one of the witnesses to the homicide, said his client believes the slayings were a setup -- that the assailants knew Aquitania was coming to the house that day.
During the fracas, Bowman said, a robber hit his client in the head with a gun. McGinness confirmed that one of the witnesses was beaten up.
"They kept telling him 'We're not playing,' " Bowman said. "Lo and behold, they were not playing."
Bowman said his client believed he was going to be killed, too.
Instead, the 21-year-old witness said he saw his best friend gunned down. After the assailants fled, the man pulled the gravely wounded baby out of the car seat and carried him door to door on Country Greens Court, begging for help.
"He's having an awful time," his attorney said. "He can't sleep. He can't talk about it without crying. (Sean Sr.) was like his brother."
The client, who is not being named because he is the eyewitness to an unsolved homicide, has been convicted of two drug offenses in the past three years.
Bowman said he could not speculate why the killers would have gunned down a baby.
"These guys were obviously coldblooded killers and not acting rationally," he said. "I think people are coming out of the woodwork to help solve this."
McGinness said that the baby's killing has spurred many members of the public -- even hard-core gang members -- to offer information.
"People are expressing cooperation and concern that this person is still at large," the sheriff said. "There's a high degree of outrage. We believe we will solve this one."
NOTE: WE ARE UNSURE AS TO THE VALIDITY OF THE OFFICERS' CLAIMS THAT THIS YOUNG MAN WAS INVOLVED IN GANGS OR CRIME (IT COULD BE AN ATTEMPT AT GETTING INFORMATION, OR JUST SOMEONE TO BLAME.) HOWEVER, WHETHER HE WAS OR NOT, OUR MESSAGE TO OTHERS SHOULD REMAIN CONSISTANT!
WE CAN NO LONGER TOLERATE VIOLENCE SUCH AS THIS! WE HAVE TO ATTEMPT TO TAKE RESPONSIBLITY FOR OUR STREETS, AS KILLERS NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR VIOLENCE. NO MATTER HOW ONE LOOKS AT THIS, THAT INFANT HAD THE RIGHT TO LIVE.
Info on the benefit concert upcoming; a lot of work involved in this, and we are making progress. Looks like we are looking at a date of either November 10th or November 17th.