The news story of Wednesday’s crazy-violent bank robbery in Stockton has gotten a lot of play here in the Bay Area. Hundreds of shots were fired in a chase and shoot-out with 20 cop cars pursuing the robbers at a high speed through three communities. Two of the three criminals were killed, and one hostage, a customer, was murdered and two other hostages, both bank employees, were wounded.

Below, the hijacked SUV tells the story of the gunfight with dozens of bullet holes.

The three robbers were Norteno gangsters, apparently part of the 70 documented gangs present in the city of 300,000.

The following local news segment My look inside Stockton gang life is from 2012 and shows the barbaric gang culture in the city, imported via Mexican immigration, as well as from home-grown black gangs like the Crips.

Back to the present case…

Bank Robbers Were Members of One of Stockton’s Most Violent Gangs, Cops Say, NBC News, July 17, 2014

All three suspects in a deadly bank robbery and hostage drama in Stockton, California, are members of one of the city’s most violent and entrenched gangs, the Nortenos, police tell NBC News.

While investigators are still trying to determine why the suspects allegedly ended up taking three hostages — one of whom later died along with two of the three gunmen — after robbing the bank on Wednesday, police spokesman Joe Silva said Thursday that the suspects came armed for a fight and were ready to mix it up with police at the slightest provocation.

“We don’t exactly yet know their mindset” said Silva. “But they were ready to get in a gun battle if they thought police officers were going to intervene.”

Silva declined to identify the gang, but at a later news conference police said it was the “Norteno” street gang.

Police in Stockton have been targeting the gang — a local group affiliated with the dominant Latino gang in Northern California — for years. In November 2012, police rounded up at least 39 members of the gang and seized weapons and narcotics, according to KCRA-TV, NBC’s Sacramento affiliate.

Police on Thursday identified the surviving gunman as 19-year-old Jaime Ramos of Stockton. They did not identify the other two men, but said they were 27-year-old and 30-year-old residents of Stockton. Continue reading this article