В Оакленде раскрыта цепь событий, приведшая к параличу 11-летнего мальчика после похищения автомобиля

OAKLAND — Jesse Moreno allegedly crept up to a Mercedes Benz E550 as it pulled up to a parking spot on 48th Avenue and International Boulevard, then pulled out a pistol and forced the driver to give up her keys. It was one of 14,554 reported vehicle thefts in Oakland that year. But police say it would set off a chain of events that led to a then-8-year-old boy being shot and permanently paralyzed just two hours later, as he and his family unwittingly drove into a gang’s ambush on the freeway. Now, more than three years after the tragic shooting, Oakland police and the California Highway Patrol say they’ve pieced together how it happened, and why. Three men have been charged with attempted murder of Moreno, and paralyzing the child victim, who is now 11 years old, in the process. All three are allegedly part of Ghost Town, a notorious gang from West Oakland that made headlines last year for a brazen high-end robbery spree that reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars and left victims traumatized, according to court records. The suspected shooters have been identified in court records as Ronald Cole, aka Tynel Cole, 48, and Kashaka Garrett and Garland Rabon, both 30. On the same case, Alameda County prosecutors have also charged Moreno, 21, with carjacking a woman and possessing a gun. Moreno was still driving the Benz, which was registered to Garrett, when the three alleged Ghost Town members tracked him down on Interstate 580 near Grand Avenue and opened fire, missing Moreno but striking the child, who suffered a gunshot wound that went through his chin, into his spine and paralyzed him. Three years later, the child remains paralyzed but buoyed by community support. A GoFundMe for him in 2023 sought to raise $500,000 but more than doubled that with $1.1 million in donations. Last Halloween, well-wishers surprised him with an 11-foot Mario Kart-style roller, designed to work with the wheelchair he requires to get around. It was unveiled at his school playground with teachers, classmates and family members beaming, then walking off together in their costumes. As for the suspects, two of them have already been linked to some of the Bay Area’s most shocking crimes in recent memory. Moreno, an alleged member of a Norteño gang subset in Oakland, remains a person of interest in the Oct. 1, 2022 killings of Jazy Sotelo Garcia, 17, and Angel Sotelo Garcia, 15, shot at a house party in Oakland. He was sentenced to probation for guns found during the initial double homicide investigation. Police later investigated him in several violent crimes, and he was arrested at Avenal State Prison, where he’s serving time for multiple nonfatal shootings, according to police. Rabon is also serving time, but in federal prison, for being the getaway driver in the high-end robbery spree, which targeted jewelry stores and cannabis businesses. In court records, his attorneys had described him as a “youth mentor” through a program funded by the city of Oakland and said that his decision to aid fellow gang members in the spree was a “mistake caused by a lifetime of trauma and drug addiction.” “Throughout the year and half my case was pending, I spent more time with my kids than I ever had before, and attended drug and mental counseling for the first time in my life,” Rabon wrote in a 2025 apology letter before he was sentenced to six years and three months. “I am a changed person and never want to return to the life I previously lived.” Authorities say after the carjacking, the woman driving Garrett’s car called 911 and gave a description of the attacker as an armed man wearing a red bandana. Garrett also got wind of the incident, according to police. The three men loaded into a Dodge Durango and set out to find the Mercedes, driving around Oakland. About two hours after the carjacking, at around 6:30 p.m., then allegedly spotted the Mercedes on the freeway and opened fire, according to prosecutors. Moreno would later admit to firing back, according to police. But only one of the guns matched the .45-caliber bullet that struck the child, and police say it came from the Dodge. After the shootout, the Dodge was found partially torched in another part of Oakland. Police say they tracked down the Mercedes too, and noted it was riddled with bullets. Cole was identified as a suspect from a DNA match on a shell casing, and Moreno’s DNA was found in a burnt cigarillo in the Mercedes, according to police. The other two suspects were identified from electronic evidence, including phone records showing them matching the path of the Dodge, authorities allege. The child was rushed to a hospital and treated. His family said in the GoFundMe that the boy is a “fighter” who was rebuilding his life two weeks after his near-death experience. “(The child) is not only alive, but he’s making us laugh, reading his favorite books and requesting songs by Imagine Dragons,” the page says. “His intellect, his spirit, and his love of life are very much intact.”