Miguel Bracamontes Ruiz, 23, from East Palo Alto, and Michael Tyrone Darrell McNack, 21, from Union City, were charged with the murder of Ralph Fields Jr., 34, who was shot in May 2022 in East Palo Alto’s Jack Farrell Park.
Two of the four suspects in the shooting that killed Fields and hurt three others, Bracamontes Ruiz and McNack, took plea deals on November 4. San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said they were likely linked.
He was found guilty of one felony count of assault with a firearm, one felony count of negligent firing of a firearm, one felony count of evading the police, and one misdemeanor count of battery.
Wagstaffe told me last Thursday that he was given a nine-year and four-month prison term. Wagstaffe said McNack pleaded not guilty to one felony count of assault with a gun and was given eight years in jail.
The two are not being charged with murder because police still don’t know much about the attack, which they say was planned, and they don’t know if any of the suspects were acting in self-defense.
Around 6 p.m. on May 17, 2022, two groups of people started shooting at each other in the park, where about 60 kids and adults were having fun and practicing sports. 33 shots were fired, hitting people in the street and making the whole neighborhood shiver.
After Fields was shot in the chest, the police put pressure on his wounds, but he died on the way to the hospital in an ambulance.
According to the dispatchers, three other people were shot. Two were hit in the chest, and the third was hurt in the legs. It’s not clear if these people were the suspects in the shooting, but Wagstaffe said that at least two of them were hurt in the attack.
A week after the murder, two suspects were caught, and they are still among the four people being held today.
Ruiz, McNack, Bobby Williams (49), from San Francisco, and Luis Mariscal (38), from East Palo Alto, were charged with many crimes in August 2023. These included assault with a dangerous weapon and discharge of a firearm with gross negligence.
Bobby Williams Jr.’s case goes to court on January 24, and Luis Javier Mariscal is charged with attempted murder in Santa Clara County for reasons unrelated to this case. He does not yet have a court date, Wagstaffe said.
Wagstaffe said that an eight-year-old’s video of the fatal night was the most important piece of evidence in the case. He also thanked the people of East Palo Alto for their help in making the charges.
Field was the first person to be killed in 2022. He died in an area that used to be a crime hotspot but was recently labeled a “clean zone,” meaning that the community and the police took care of and cleaned it.
After the shooting, the city of East Palo Alto chose to put surveillance cameras all over the area. In 2023, there were no murders in East Palo Alto.
