Four arrested after early-morning shooting at Downtown Merced bar

A shooting in front of a Downtown Merced bar early Saturday morning resulted in four arrests, Merced police said.

Police were called around 12:45 a.m. about a shooting in front of O'Reilly's night club in the 1700 block of Canal Street. The suspects left the scene in a black BMW. Officers in the area of 16th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way heard the gunshots and saw the car driving eastbound on 18th Street. They could see a large hole in the rear window of the car as it turned right onto G Street. After several blocks, the drivers of the BMW pulled over at the Highway 99 on-ramp at G Street.

During a search of the car, Officer Gerald Bohanan found a loaded Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver in the glove compartment.

Officers arrested Jose Saldana, 27, Jesus Moreno, 32, Carmen Moreno, 21, and Alberto Garcia, 21, all of Planada. All suspects are Sureno gang members, police said. Officers think they got into a fight with a group of Norteno gang members inside the bar, and the fight spilled onto the street where the shooting occurred. No injuries were reported in the shooting.

Merced Police are asking anyone with any information to contact investigators at (209) 385-6913 or (209) 385-4702, or the department's anonymous tip line at (209) 385-4725. The public can send information via anonymous text messages to police department by dialing "TIP411" (847411) and including the word "ComVIP" as the keyword.

-- Posted by Brandon Bowers