Mayor says community must come together to combat gang activity

Helping the Sheriff's Department and District Attorney's Office keep order is the duty of the mayor and supervisors, but residents also need to help make their community safe, said Carson City Mayor Marv Teixeira on Thursday in response to a fatal gang-related shoot-out in northeast Carson.

"It's people taking care of people - and not being intimidated," he said. "The gangs in this community aren't going to take over our streets."

The incident happened the night before the community's Nevada Day celebration.

Nevada's admission day festivities drew 35,000 people and only resulted in three arrests. That citywide festivities turned out so problem-free while a Halloween party attended by 100 youth ended so violently begs the question, "what's wrong with this picture?" Teixeira said.

"Everybody in the community should be angry," Teixeira said about the shoot-out that resulted after gang members showed up at a party for middle school students. He commented about the matter near the end of the supervisors meeting Thursday.

One man, Luis Martin Saavedra-Silva, 20, died Wednesday from a gunshot wound to the head. The 20-year-old was at the party to pick up a teenage relative and wasn't a gang member.

A second man received multiple gunshot wounds and is expected to survive, according to reports.

Teixeira said the Sheriff's Department has been working hard to find those responsible. For deputies "to go through 100 people and hear that nobody sees anything" isn't like Carson City, he said.

The only way to ease the city's gang tensions will be for the entire community to take a stand against it. Teixeira cites as an example local efforts to curb methamphetamine use. Something similar could ease the situation.

However, "there is no magic solution," Teixeira said. "300-, 400- or $500,000 more into (law) enforcement isn't the total answer."

• Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.