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3 charged in deadly gang shooting
Official: 1 dead, 3 hurt when rivals exchange gunfire in East Hall
Robert Montez
Robert Montez

The Hall County Sheriff’s Office is continuing to investigate a gang shooting early Sunday that left one teenager dead and three others injured.

The sheriff’s office has charged Robert Jacob Montez, 18, of Gainesville with murdering 16-year-old Juan Gomez of Gainesville, said Col. Jeff Strickland, spokesman for the department.

Montez also has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault and three counts of aggravated battery in the attack on three other teens, whose names weren’t released as of Sunday.

Miguel Garcia, 18, of Gainesville has been charged with party to murder and party to aggravated assault, and Jesus Rodriguez Martinez, 17, of Gainesville has been charged with party to aggravated assault.

A preliminary investigation shows that two rival gangs traveling in separate vehicles met at Harmony Church Road and Thousand Oaks Drive, about a mile south of Gillsville Highway, in East Hall, Strickland said.

Members of one of the gangs, SUR 13, began shooting at the car occupied by members of the La Onda gang.

At about midnight, deputies responded to a call of gunshots being fired at the intersection. When they arrived, they were unable to find the disturbance.

About 15 minutes later, a car arrived at Northeast Georgia Medical Center with four males suffering from gunshot wounds, Strickland said.

Gomez was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Two other 16-year-old boys and a 17-year-old boy were treated for gunshot wounds.

Investigators also have recovered two small-caliber handguns.

"Those will have to be tested for ballistics to see if they were the actual weapons used in the homicide," Strickland said.

The sheriff’s office’s Criminal Investigations Division and the Gainesville-Hall County Gang Task Force are investigating the case, he said.