Livingston official calls bullet found near home gang threat

A Livingston planning commissioner filed a police report this week after he claims to have found an assault rifle bullet near his front door.

Mario Mendoza, 42, said he didn’t think anything of it at first but now believes it was a gang threat against him and his family. Mendoza said the AK-47 bullet was sitting on top of a fence pillar in his front yard Nov. 12, in place of a removed brick.

The perceived threat stems from a photograph made public in October that depicted Mendoza posing with several people described by law enforcement officials as known gang members. Authorities identified the men as either members or associates of Livas Locos, a Norteño street gang in Livingston.

Mendoza, who made an unsuccessful run for City Council earlier this year, claimed the picture was passed out by Livingston Mayor Rodrigo Espinoza and Mayor Pro Tem Gurpal Samra, his opponent in the council race.

Circulating the picture to the public during the election, Mendoza said, along with a newspaper article about the controversy caused him to be the target of a rival street gang. Now Mendoza said he fears for the safety of his family.

“It just kind of worried me. I’ve got three kids and a wife,” Mendoza said Thursday. “It was an illegal round and it sent a statement that we know where you live. You find a bullet in front of your house, how would you feel?”

Mendoza consulted with his brother, Livingston Councilman David Mendoza, who urged him to file a police report about the incident. Mendoza claims a Livingston police officer taking the report told him it appeared the bullet may have been placed there by a rival gang from outside the city.

The officer denied making those comments, according to Livingston Police Chief Ruben Chavez. The chief said there’s no indication that the bullet found on Mendoza’s property is tied to gang activity.

“There is no evidence that connects it to anything criminal, so this is pretty much a closed case,” Chavez said. “It’s pretty much speculation about where that bullet came from.”

Mendoza, who stressed he doesn’t have any enemies, said he purchased a gun to protect his family.

He also hired a Modesto-based attorney, Justin Thomas Allen, to look into the distribution of the photo Mendoza believes led to the threat.

Allen said he believes the photograph and surrounding negative attention caused Mendoza to lose the council race, and he will be requesting his client be placed on the council.

“I can tell you for sure that was the reason he lost the race,” Allen said. “This all stems from accusations that he was affiliated with the Norteños based on wearing a 49er jersey (in the photo). There’s no way he is a gang member.”

Allen said Mendoza has no criminal history and has never been arrested. He said about “50 witnesses” could confirm that Samra and Espinoza went door to door with the picture of Mendoza to give Samra a competitive edge in the race.

Espinoza on Wednesday said the picture was brought to his attention but denied distributing it to others.

“I had the picture because someone showed it to me, but I didn’t pass it out to anyone,” Espinoza said. “I can’t prevent people from taking action like lawsuits. He can say whatever he wants.”

Samra also defended himself against the accusations. “I only showed it to two or three people,” Samra said. “Just because I knocked on hundreds of people’s doors during the election doesn’t mean I showed them the picture.”

Samra said the picture was made public when it was posted to Facebook by someone in the photo.

“I did not post the photo to Facebook, they did. And I never said he was a gang member,” Samra continued. “Most people didn’t even know about the photo until he (Mendoza) showed up at a City Council meeting and spoke about it.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2014 at 9:12 PM with the headline "Livingston official calls bullet found near home gang threat."