Santa Clarita has consistently ranked highly on several lists of the safest places in the country.
Online outlets like MoneyGeek, SmartAsset and WalletHub, which give advice on what neighborhoods are good investments, crunch the numbers for local crime rates — figures that traditionally make the city look pretty good.
The area’s safety and security are routinely cited as an incentive for developers when plans are discussed for properties and touted by city officials to businesses as a regional draw.
During a phone interview in May, for example, a developer shared his genuine excitement about the chance to work on another project with the city’s Planning Division.
The project called for a complex similar to Newhall Crossings, another benefit from the city’s efforts to rebound Old Town Newhall. Those efforts started with state redevelopment dollars about a quarter-century ago.
That state fund is long gone, but the benefits can be seen all around.
A website advertises plush, 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom apartments starting at $3,650 per month on Main Street. The new plans in front of the city call for a similar project down the road in the 24300 block of Main Street.
But barely a half-mile away, a neighborhood is becoming frustrated by growing violence that has ebbed and flowed over the years but hasn’t abated for more than a year, despite countless search warrants and raids, saturation patrols and dozens of arrests.
Some in the neighborhood are concerned, others remain confident in the area, but all have agreed the violence isn’t something they expect to see and hear about in their safe bedroom community.
A tough year
Santa Clarita property values continue to benefit from city planning through development by way of outside investment in desirable, mixed-use projects. But lately the violence has increased in neighborhoods that gentrification efforts have yet to impact, primarily in the numbered streets between Market Street and 16th Street surrounding Railroad Avenue.
About a half-mile away from where the brand-new apartments are being planned, a handwritten note in Spanish is taped outside the self-service laundry advertising more affordable accommodations — a nearby room for $1,300 a month.
The lavanderia’s signage is posted next to Dooly’s Liquor Store at 22505 14th St., just a few feet from where a man was stabbed to death in March 2023.
The neighborhood surrounding Walnut Street in particular has been witness to gun violence, a good deal of it gang-related, although many of the incidents are separate and treated as individual investigations, according to detectives.
“It’s been a lot these last 365 days,” said a man who identified himself only as Chef Tony, as he headed down Walnut Street toward 14th Street on June 20.
He was a few hundred feet from a pair of shootings that happened just days earlier in the 25000 block of Walnut.
Tony, who has four children, moved to Santa Clarita because of its safe reputation.
Lately, it hasn’t felt that way, he said.
“This isn’t the first time this has happened,” he said, referring to the shooting death of Fernando Barnabe, a 31-year-old Newhall man who was shot and killed outside Valencia Liquor three days earlier.
Homicide detectives arrested Omar Garcia Perez in connection with the murder. Both are believed to be involved in local gangs, according to Lt. Mike Modica of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau.
“Two kids died in a pool in front of my complex,” Tony said, referring to the murders of Brian Chevez, 25, and Cameron Stokes, 16, who were shot and killed at 10:50 a.m. near the pool at The Village Apartments on Valle Del Oro on March 18, 2023
“I have seen a lot, and one thing leads to another, and it’s just — I have little kids,” he said.
“It’s very deterring, and it makes me not want to live on this street, even though this street is very nice. The people are very comforting, they’re very family-oriented.
“I just wish there was something better we can do about that,” he said, referring to the violence. “You know? There’s other ways that adults can go about doing things.”
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Meanwhile, just outside downtown
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station detectives from the Juvenile and Gangs Unit who have been investigating the activity seen in the area for years have noted the recent rise, but are hesitant to link incidents, attribute a cause or discuss a case, sometimes even after it’s presented to the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office.
While detectives have said some of the crimes are linked to gang activity, which is locally concentrated in Canyon Country, Newhall and Val Verde, residents say it’s becoming a pattern in Newhall.
Detectives also confirmed that the March 2023 double murder is suspected to be gang-related.
Anthony Ernesto Martinez Ortiz, of Newhall, turned 18 about a month before the murder he’s charged with committing, and his co-defendant, Steven Rosas, is 16.
Martinez Ortiz is due back in court next week for another hearing in his trial. The DA’s office has refused to provide any updates regarding the status of Rosas because he’s a minor.
The stabbing outside of Dooly’s not far away hasn’t been linked to gang activity, according to a detective who spoke on background. There’s been an arrest, but the case technically remains “part of an active investigation.”
Steven Castro, a Canyon Country mechanic, was arrested on suspicion of murder at 6:20 a.m. March 12, 2023, less than 24 hours after the altercation believed to have preceded the stabbing at the 22500 block of 14th St., according to L.A. County Sheriff’s Department arrest records.
Prosecutors ended up presenting an assault with a deadly weapon charge against Castro, who was released in lieu of $30,000 bail three days after his arrest.
After more than a dozen continuances, the case was dropped after a defense motion under Section 1382 of the Penal Code, which guarantees a defendant the right to a speedy trial.
An email from Venusse Dunn, spokeswoman for the DA’s office, indicated the case couldn’t proceed after a witness refused to show up to testify.
Community voices
The violence isn’t making everyone second-guess Santa Clarita’s safe-city reputation,
Maria, who declined to give her last name, works a day shift very close to the site of the stabbing outside Dooly’s.
As she was leaving work Thursday, she said she was aware of the incidents, “a shooting here and a shooting there,” she said, but people don’t really talk too much about them.
She said she reads a lot about them in news articles and in Facebook posts.
“It’s crazy, because it was really calm here,” she said, adding she moved to the area because “it’s not as ghetto like where I grew up (in North Hollywood),” the Canyon Country resident said.
“It’s here and there, but Santa Clarita is a safe city.”
However, for Juan Ruiz, the growing frequency of the incidents was a concern.
“It’s a big problem,” the Walnut Street resident said in Spanish, through an interpreter, back in June. “You can hear the blasts in the night and then police arrive but they don’t arrest anyone.”
He worries for potential innocent bystanders, he added.
“The shootings could be heard but we don’t know who it is. I don’t go out, so I’m not in danger. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. I stay only at home,” he said.
The most recent shooting on Walnut Street might have illustrated Ruiz’s concern, but also the challenges facing law enforcement officials who are trying to piece together what happened with little help.
A man in his 20s and a woman in her 70s were victims of gunfire on July 4 that was traced back to the 25000 block of Walnut.
The woman phoned in her injuries on the way to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. When deputies responded there, they learned about the second victim who was transported, whom deputies described as “very uncooperative.”
On Thursday, a JAG detective said the incident is part of an active investigation and no arrests have been made yet.
Official response
There is nothing more serious to the SCV Sheriff’s Station than public safety issues like this kind of violence, said Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the local station.
He acknowledged the problems some neighborhoods have had with gangs in parts of Newhall, which has been occurring off and on for some time.
He also said outlets, especially social media, have been much more active in terms of talking about such activity, which is another reason why any increase might seem more prominent than in the past.
SCV Sheriff’s Station officials have mentioned efforts that include operations and patrols — with dedicated teams from the station as well as some that are part of Special Assignment Teams — to outreach in partnership with the William S. Hart Union High School District with school resource deputies like Jensen and others who know the area well.
While deputies are making proactive efforts with outreach for crime prevention, several detectives familiar with the investigations have mentioned challenges in cases where witnesses have been reluctant to come forward. It’s also a concern they have in talking about the investigation or the details of violent incidents.
“I will say, there is a hurdle that we do cross, which is cooperation with the public and cooperation with identifications and things like that because of that fear whenever you’re dealing with anything related to gangs,” said Detective James Van Horn, who’s part of the station’s dedicated team that works on gang activity.
When asked about those challenges, Jensen quoted a seminal figure in policing principles, Sir Robert Peel, saying, “‘The police are the public and the public are the police,’” he said, adding that all law enforcement officials rely on the community to be their “eyes and ears” to solve crimes.
“Even the random tips we get from CrimeStoppers, we look at every one of those,” he said, referring to the department’s anonymous reporting service.
Going forward
Echoing the results of a citywide poll, which had public safety as most people’s No. 1 priority, Santa Clarita Mayor Cameron Smyth said he understands the concern and how these incidents can have effects beyond the defendant and the victim.
“I think public safety remains the top priority for me, and I think the council as a whole,” said Smyth, who also has a child who attends school in the area.
“As someone who drives by that area daily, I’m certainly aware of the impact that (gang violence) can have, not just on the area of Newhall, but on the city as a whole.”
He said past campaigns to address widespread city problems, such as the Heroin Kills or anti-fentanyl campaigns, were driven by the council along with work by “all the other stakeholders to put something together.”
He said he wasn’t aware of a community call for such action to address the situation in Newhall, but he added that no one is dismissing residents’ concerns, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the violence.
Maria Knight, who lives on Walnut not far from where several shootings have happened, moved to the neighborhood from Canyon Country about seven years ago.
She’s become fed up with the incidents, which make her concerned for her grandkids when they go out and play in the street.
“There have been some very difficult times,” she said, and she’s ready for a curfew on the streets or something more drastic, if it will make a difference. “Because many, many people like to ride their bikes over here, but now, I don’t know what happened, but it doesn’t seem very secure sometimes.”
Katherine Quezada contributed to this report.
TIMELINE: Click arrow at the bottom to scroll from 2023 to 2024.
Newhall Violence Timeline by Tim WhyteAnyone who would like to provide information anonymously can call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), use a smartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile APP on Google play or the Apple App Store or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.
