On any given day in southern California, hundreds of investigators are working more than ten thousand unsolved cases. That's thousands of friends and families who have lost loved ones, thousands of people who got away with a crime, and thousands of murderers who still walk the streets. Killers who may be your neighbor, go to your church, or could be dating a close friend. For the next two hours will highlight cases that have gone cold, baffled investigators, or just
needs that one witness to speak up. This is unsolved with Steve Gregory, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department homicide case number zero two one DASH one two nine five eight DASH two eight two five zero one one the murders of nineteen year old Javierra Minchaka and twenty two year old one of Roscoe. We got a call from Homicide Detective Sergeant Mike Austin. He works in the Active Cases bullpen inside Homicide Bureau, which is in Monterey Park. This is our first case
with Detective Austin. He said he had a double murder involving two guys who were friends and we're sitting in their car on the evening of November fourteenth, twenty twenty one, in the City of Compton. Detective Austin breaks down the case of the street takeover execution. It was a Saturday night into Sunday. There was a street takeover near the intersection of Pine and Bullets in the City of Compton and deputies were dispatched to that location to break up the illegal street
takeover that was taking place at that time. And actually a deputy had staged a couple of blocks south of where this takeover was occurring, and during that time there were shots fired. The deputy waited for an additional backup to roll in and so as they rolled in, it was mass chaos. Basically, people were just dispersing and going everywhere. There's two to three hundred people minimum
at this takeover. The deputies were directed to a vehicle that was parked in the middle of the street on Bullis, just south of the Pine intersection. The vehicle was actually facing north, but it was in the number one southbound lane because the cars had basically blocked the entire street. As they approached, people were running everywhere. They found two individuals, Wanna Rosco and Javier Menchaka, in a vehicle and they had been basically shot to death. So when
you say deputies were directed to this car, who directed them? As they were approaching, there were witnesses saying, hey, over there, someone's been shot. Okay, So that tells you right out of the shoot someone witnessed the shoot. Absolutely. So this is a case of the street takeovers now, and this is one of the things that I know law ENFORCEMTH Sheriff Department,
police departments have been battling with on something like this. Based on your experience, Sergeant, a shooting at a street takeover is at common or uncommon, it's becoming more common over the last several years. Unfortunately, I don't know the statistics, but I do know that there are multiple cases under investigation within our bureau that involved or have something to do with being in proximity to a near go street takeover. So when you get the call and you roll
up, what was the first thing you saw it? And it kind of walk us through that and paint the picture. So as I arrived, I was home sleeping, I get the phone call and so I got there some time between three and three thirty in the morning, and as I arrived, it's already taped off the intersections are taped off. There's deputies, you know, everywhere around and I contact the handling deputy who basically gives me and my
partner an overview of what they have there. And there's basically the victim's vehicle as I described earlier, it's it's facing north in the number one southbound lane of Bullets just south of Pine. That was the intersection that the racing was going on. And there was an individual who seated in the right front passenger seat, one A Roscoe. He had been shot multiple times in his upper
body. And then the apparent driver of the vehicle was actually laying partially out of the vehicle with a leg still inside on the driver's floorboard of the vehicle, and he had been shot in the upper body and was deceased. Okay, So when you unpack this kind of thing and you walk up to a scene like this, first of all, what kind of an area are we talking about here at the intersection of Bullis and Pine? Pine? Is that
industrial? Was it? So? Residential? Bullis is a north south street and Pine intersects with that street and Pine basically if you turn east leads into a residential area to the west side. Of Bullis is a super walmart on the north west corner, and then there was some sort of commercial building that was not being used to the south, to the west and south of Pine
so on something like that. I assume bystanders were not there anymore. There were some still, some transients were there that we're staying in there, and a lot of people. As the night grew more people were showing up outside the tape and they were some of them were friends of one of the victims that had heard what had happened. But it's it's pretty secure for me at that point because we have a big investigation to do, and we made a
very wide crime scene to ensure that we didn't miss anything. One of the issues we had at this scene was about one hundred yards away northwest of where this incident took place. We found additional cartridge casings in the roadway there, which perplexed us at that moment. Why is their cartridge casings over here? You know? And we had cartridge casings at the scene near the car.
Yeah, So when you get to a scene like that, what I the reason I was asking about the bystanders is were you able to interview any potential witnesses when you got there or where our da are they held there for you? How does that work? At that point? There were no witnesses that I recall being there because every it was mass chaos. Everybody scattered and fled the location. Sure, there was a few people that had been interviewed by
deputies, and that's where that's where I was getting at. So will deputies actually do some initial interviews for you and then hand that off? Is that how that works? Yes? Yeah, they're they're they're they're trying to figure out, hey, did you see anything? Yeah? I did? You know, they'll they'll try to, you know, hold those people there for us if they're willing, more curious than anything. Because I've always been I've voice wondered how that works because again you see in the way that they do
it in movies and TVs, TV shows. But are they do the deputies dig deep at all or do they just get surface information at that At that level as a general rule, they get surface information and they know that we're coming okay, and they don't want to do anything that might disrupt our investigation, like what but well, they might have a suspect at the scene, and then they start questioning him and they, you know, don't realize he's
a suspect, or there's there should have been a miranda way, something of that nature should have occurred. But the deputies are good. They know what to do. When they know they have somebody with good information, they'll usually detain them and or get their cooperation and hold them at the scene or take them back of the station so we can interview him. And then you get those notes when you get on scene is and how it works, yeah,
those not. So we arrive and generally, you know, as we're waiting for all the people that are going to assist us, We're waiting for the crime lab. I'm waiting for my boss, I'm waiting for everybody. We're chit chatting about what's going on, but we're not getting into the nitty gritty, you know, because once everybody's there, we're going to do a formal briefing and then we're going to do a formal walkthrough of the scene, and
the deputy explains what was going on at that time. All we're at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homics Side Bureau talking with Sergeant Mike Austin, about a double murder from twenty twenty one. Two young men gunned down during a street takeover at the intersection of Pine and Bullis in Conton. When we come back, we'll talk more about this case, but first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on kf I AM six forty. Time now for a news
update. Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is Unsolved. Welcome back. We are talking with Sergeant Mike Austin. He is a detective with the La County Sheriff's Department's Homics Side Bureau. He's breaking down a case for us going back to November of twenty twenty one. It happened just before one am on November fourteenth, at the intersection of Pine and Bullis in Compton, two young men gunned down during a
street takeover. Sergeant, before the break you were sort of you were kind of breaking down when you roll up to a scene and the deputies had already done some surface interviews of people around there. What were you able to get
from that? What did you get some good intel at that point? No, we didn't have a lot of great intel Basically, I've been involved in law enforcement for nearly thirty two years, and I worked in the city of Carson as a young patrol deputy, and we dealt with these street races for years, and it's just something that's been going on forever. And I was aware of the complete chaos that was most likely going on at the time when the deputies rolled in. So I can imagine them trying to secure the scene.
They're worried about officer safety, they're worried about crime scene preservation at that point and getting people away from the vehicle where the victims were. So it's pretty chaotic and I could picture that going on. So I didn't have a lot of expectations about what I would be brought initially during the investigation. Because people flee, they go, there's not a lot of deputies on scene.
They really can't control every aspect of it. So knowing that now we've got the scene secure, I need to ensure that we preserve every item of evidence that we can preserve at that point, and that's my main focus here. I knew that we didn't have specific suspect information, otherwise I would have gotten people on following up on that and trying to find those suspects, so I didn't have that at that point. How many colleagues did you have at other
detectives? How many would work a scene like this? So a scene like this is generally it's me and my partner and we will have anywhere between one and three crime scene personnel out there assisting with us on that. We have detectives from Compton Station that came and provided us with some information, and then there's deputies all over the perimeter of the scene. But generally it's just it's my partner and I that are directing this investigation. Did you get an idea
of how many people were involved in the street takeover? We had some video that was posted on Instagram at about the time of this incident, and it was a lot. I mean for me to guess two to three hundred people minimally we're at this scene when it occurred. Yes, About how many cars? It was numerous, numerous cars. I mean it was north and southbound lanes blocked and cars parked ten deep at every angle that you could think of.
And then there's a large parking lot to the west for the walmart and for this industrial building that was next to us, and there was tons of cars in those parking lots also that we're there spectating. Yeah, because this sort of right at the peak of when it was really becoming more public. To your point, the street takeover type things had been happening for a while,
but social media really helped to exacerbate all that. Yeah, So by virtue of you saying you saw it on Instagram about twenty twenty one, November twenty twenty one, that was just about because I mean, in the city of Los Angeles, say, we're having big problems at the same time, so this was pretty common. Absolutely. So at this point you get to the vehicle, you notice you see the two individuals inside, men Choka and a Roscoe. So what do you do first? I mean, where do
you go first? Where do your eyes go first? And where do your hands go first? So, first of all, anything that we think might be evidence, we're going to identify that our forensic identification specialist is We're going to direct them to take photographs of the entire scene before we even touch it. Once that's complete, now we label all the evidence that we see as
items one, two, three, four on up. And those placards are laid down, and then the forensic identification specialist will photograph the scene again with those placards in place. Once that's complete. Generally, now we're going to call the coroner in and the corner investigators going to arrive and so they're going to do their investigation of the victim's remains were present for that. We're photographing
that as that's occurring. Quite often during those times you find additional pieces of evidence that you didn't visually see, that might be under somebody or under an item that you don't move initially. So you had the one individual I believe you said it was Manchocca was the passenger, right, No, Manchacca was the driver. Yes, so Oroscoe was in the passenger seat. And what
was his condition like when you saw him? You said he'd been shot multiple times in the upper torso did it look like he was trying to get out of the car or did it look like there was any defensive wounds. It looked like he was possibly caught by surprise and unable to react to what occurred. As that happened. By evidence of the driver being partially out of the vehicle, it appears he was trying to get out of the vehicle when he
was shot and killed. And that's that's kind of where I was headed, because you know, you said that his body was out of the car and his leg was sort of inside the car, right, yes, can you tell me something like that? Who was shot first? I can only surmise, but from appearance, sakes, I would say that the passenger was probably shot first. What did that tell you? Well, it told it told me where the shooter was in proximity to the v vehicle, and that was
based on cartridge casings that were at the scene. So we believe that the suspect approached the vehicle from the passenger side and fired through the open window of the victim's vehicle. Oh so through so in front of the Rusco and then hit minshaka. Yes, then okay, that makes sense. So does it looked like they approached They were on the street then, right, So it
had to have been during the takeover. Multiple people were on there, so they were on the street absolutely, and there was probably a car parked next to that victim vehicle at the time this was happening. There's no doubt in my mind that people saw this happening and saw these suspects. Suspect flee the location. I believe he had to have gotten into a car and left and
somebody saw that. Unfortunately, we don't have that information. When we come back, we'll take more on this case of double murder in Compton, But first, this is unsolved. With Steve Gregory on kf I Am six forty time now for a news update. Kf I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory. This is unsolved. If you're listening on the app, you can send us a tip about a case, a story, idea, or a commentent about the show. Just tap the red
microphone on the app and record your message. Welcome back to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Thomas Ibureau. We're speaking with Sergeant Mike Austin. He's telling us about a double murder from November fourteenth, twenty twenty one. Happened just before one am. Two young men, nineteen year old Javier man Chaka and twenty two year old One Arousco. We're sitting in a vehicle during a
street takeover when both were gunned down and before the break. The sergeant was walking us through how he and his partner approached the scene on the street. It was the nineteen hundred block of North Bullis Road and near the intersection of Bullis and Pine in Compton. Sergeant, one of the things you said in earlier segment was something that baffled you was the number of cartridges found up away
from the scene, further up the street. How many casings were found at the near the vehicle, If memory serves me correct, I believe it was somewhere around ten round ten. And did that match the wounds in the two bodies, It would correlate it to what we were seeing on the victims, and then can you account for the shells up the road? Eventually we did. We ended up getting a witness that was watching the street race when the
shooting began. That witness wasn't able to provide us any information as to what had happened to one or Javier. They were able to tell us that after the shooting occurred where these two were shot, they heard the shots ring out. An individual in a car parked over by where the other cartridge casings were reached out of his moon roof and began shooting in the air. So we were able to determine that most likely it was completely unrelated to what was happening
to our victims, because there was there no ballistics match. There's nothing that matched anything, and and it totally made sense. We've been told on multiple occasions there's individuals at these street races now that just shoot into the air celebratory gunfire and they call it or something of that nature nature. But yeah, we were pretty much felt pretty certain that it was just unrelated and it probably in response to hearing some gunfire, these guys went, you know, and
busted some rounds into the air. So how did you identify these guys? Did they have ID on them? So slowly but surely we were able to identify them. The vehicle was registered to somebody with the same last name as Jabier, and then we were able to the detectives before I got there, actually handed us information on who they thought these individuals were, and it ended up being there. They pulled DMV photos and we can look and go, yeah, that's that's him. Yeah, then are you the one that's tasked
with notifying next to kin? Yes? How did that go that day? So that took place later that day My partner and I went to the residence of one of the families and spoke to the mom and she was devastated, as you can imagine. And then the the mom that was the mother of Juana Roscoe Um. And one of the things I'll go back on is we had run these guys criminal histories, okay, UM one and and Javier didn't have much of anything on their history. U Javier had some minor offense when
he was a juvenile, uh one. The only thing he had was some driving related offenses. So now we're not knowing is there a gang affiliation here or anything. We're not seeing any of that with these two guys, So why would they be targeted? And so when we meet mom uh you know, we tried to get some baseline information from her. We had to interview her again later because she was so devastated over this um. And then when we we we also contacted Javier's mom. I think she actually came to the
scene, if I memory serves me correct. Um. She obviously was also devastated, but she was really not able to provide us with much information about her son, which was bothersome because we could never figure out, you know, where he lived during this whole thing, and he was driving a newer vehicle. You know, did he have a job? No, Like, okay, what was he doing for money? How is he paying for this vehicle? You know, things that most parents can can offer you answers to
she was unable to, especially at the Yes. Yes, nineteen and twenty two. Yeah, so then did you find out then you were talking about Manchaka's mom being on the scene. Had she already found out about this before you had a chance to speak with her? Yes. So one of the things we learned was that these two individuals had only known each other for a short period of time. The moms did not know each other, did not know how these two met. So that was perplexing too, Like, how
did these two guys end up in a car together. They'd known each other, by our estimate, for maybe a month or two. What we learned as we went along was that they both had an interest in the street racing scene, and that's probably what brought them together. Yeah. This issue with the kind of the you know, the parents not knowing what the kids are doing, especially young men or young kids in general, that's not too surprising, I suppose, But did you get anything out of the parents or the
moms at all that could put you down any kind of a path. Yes, Initially, Juan had a girlfriend, and we believe when we interviewed her, she had spoken to them throughout the evening. She was facetiming with these guys, and his girlfriend was a little annoyed with him because he was being out so late and he had to go to work the next morning, and she was telling him to get home, and Javier or excuse me, Juan had had facetimed his girlfriend and he said, yeah, they're about done and
he's going to come home. So Juan's girlfriend basically told us that there might have been somebody else in the car with them, and so that kind of was an investigative clue, like if there was somebody in that car with them when they were out, and about where was that person now because they hadn't come forward to us. We later received a wee tip that this might have been over a girl, and so we started digging into that and it really
didn't go anywhere with us during this investigation. But our belief is there they have been somebody else in that car or was with them and not in the car at the time. They were shot. Maybe they were up watching the race or up close as people like to get real close to this. We don't know, so I'm going to pause right there. When we come back, we'll dig more on this case from twenty twenty one. But first,
this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on kf I AM six forty. Time now for a news update kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory, and this is Unsolved. Welcome back to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Humic Side Bureau in Monterey Park. We've been talking with Sergeant Mike Austin. He's been breaking down a double murder that happened November fourteenth, twenty twenty one, just before one am in the nineteen hundred block of
North Bullis Avenue in Compton. Before the break, sergeant, you were talking a little bit about someone may have been in the car with Javier Minchaka and Juana Rosco the night that they were shot, and you were sort of figuring that out. You found out that one had a girlfriend, and the girlfriend told you that there might have been someone else in that car or any idea
who that could have been. So she said she was having a conversation with her her boyfriend, Juan, and that Juan had said that this girl that was in the car with them, So it was a girl. We believe it was a girl. Was a girlfriend of Javier's. Oh, okay, So, but you had also mentioned that this entire attack might have been motivated by a girl or jealous ears. We did get a wee tip that said something of that nature. So we really started looking hard at Javier and the
people he was associated with. We found a female of interest in the case, and we went and interviewed her and talked to her, and she was with him that day. However, she had told us that she hates the street races and that she did not go to the street race with him. We had text messages on phones that corroborated her information, and we did location data on her phone which showed that she had parted ways with Javier at two or three in the afternoon that day. So did he have other girlfriends?
He talked to a lot of girls, but we were never able to really identify anybody specifically that might have been in that car. The car that the two young men were sitting in was it stationary? I mean, was it sitting still or was it moving? It was part, it was part. You said you had some video, but you saw mostly on social media platforms. Right, No surveillance video was cross from Walmart. Right. Yeah, so Walmart, as you know, has great video, and there was businesses
in the area that had some video. We pulled the Walmart video. It was such a distance to where you could see the pandemonium of the street race occurring, but it offered us no details of anything that occurred specifically. We got a couple of other places with video looked at that. It just didn't offer us any information that we were hoping to get from it. You talked about earlier that you ran these two young men's backgrounds and nothing came up in
terms of gang relation gang affiliation. But that doesn't necessarily mean it couldn't been some sort of a gang hint. Right, We're open to any possibility on
this now. As we were looking into this, I started contacting some people who are in the street racing scene, law enforcement wise, and I spoke to an officer I don't remember his name, from the California Way Patrol, and we believe Javier was part of some sort of car club, and talking to the HP officer who's on a task force directly involved, he has been pushing because some of these car clubs that are affiliated with these street races are
acting like gangs now. And so there's a group of individuals who were associated with Javier that ended up showing up at the crime seeing. You know, during the day we interviewed them. They really didn't offer any useful information as to this incident. But he was in some sort of car club. When you say they didn't offer you any useful information, is it because they didn't know anything or they didn't want to tell you anything. I'm suspecting a little
bit of both. You know. There are hopes that one of the these individuals knows something that they would come forward, And I reach out every now and then to these guys trying to get information and open the lines of communication. And again we're hoping that using this mechanism and others via the press, that somebody comes up with a motive as to why this happened. At the
very least, we still don't have a motive. Was this in this area in the nineteen hundred block of North bullis is that gang territory of any kind. Well, it's the city of Compton, you know, and there's various gag. I think every square mile at Compton's claimed by somebody, but this specific area it's nicer homes. People called because they were annoyed by the street race. You know. There was multiple canvassings that took place on the residents
that backed up to the street. Most people reported the noise, they heard what they thought were gunfire or was gunfire, but nothing that offered us any evidence. I remember covering this initial press conference when you announced a reward, and did you get anything from the press conference? Unfortunately no. I was quite disappointed because we had a big press conference, we had both moms here, get it up and pleaded the public for information, and we did not
get one phone call generated as a result of that press conference. But you're absolutely convinced that someone saw what happened and knows exactly what happened. I'm absolutely convinced of that. So what's your message to them? Please call us, tell us why this happened. We have two grieving families that want answers, and I want to be able to give them those answers they deserved that.
I don't think these two individuals deserved what happened to them, and I would like to bring these families some sort of closure in this case and bring justice to these families. Sergeant Mike Coston, La County Sheriffs Departments, SMIC Side Bureau, thank you for your time. Yes, sir, thank you. As of this airing, there was a forty thousand dollars reward offered in the case, and you can reach out to the Unsolved Team or contact Homicide Bureau.
Coming up, we go across the hall to the Sheriff's Department's Cold Case unit, where Detective rich Tomlin breaks down a case of an Army veteran who was gunned down in front of his brother's house in Lancaster. But first, this is unsolved. With Steve Gregory on kf I AM six forty time now for a news update. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Cold case number zero one two zero seven one four six dash one one two one zero one one the
murder of thirty year old Nathan Taylor. Detective Rich Tomlin's been with the cold case unit for a few years and he's a friend of the show. He called to tell us about a disturbing case out of Lancaster. An Army veteran who served three tours overseas was murdered after he pulled up to the home of his brother. Tomlin gives us the disturbing details of the murdered military man.
On April twenty first, twenty twelve, about ten minutes after midnight on a Saturday, Nathan Taylor, aged thirty, was killed in the seven hundred block of West Avenue, aged seven in Lancaster. This area is a residential neighborhood with single family homes, and what we understand about this case is that deputies responded to a gunshot victim call for service. When they arrived, they saw Nathan slumped over the steering wheel of his white nineteen ninety six Cadillac Sedan.
He was parked in front of a residence. And what caught the deputy's attention he was obviously suffering from gunshot moons to his upper torso, the car was running, and he had an unwrapped burrito in his lap. At the scene, they spoke to Nathan's brother, Patrick, and Patrick told them the following. Patrick said his brother Nathan had called him a few minutes earlier and said that he was in the neighborhood and that he wanted to stop by and visit
him. But right before he's gonna stop by, he's gonna grab something to eat. So Patrick said he is in the backyard just waiting for his brother, when suddenly he heard six or seven gunshots. He ran outside and he saw his brother slumped over the wheel of the car, and he immediately started screaming for neighbors to call nine one one. Patrick also mentioned when he walked outside, he saw three young men running down the street around the corner,
and there were hopping fences and out of his view. So at that point deputies arrived. They're trying to sort things out. They've talked to a few witnesses in the area, and someone actually identified that one house. Seeing three individuals run into a particular house on a street around the corner, deputies immediately
got a search warrant and entered into that residence. There they spoke to three young men who told them the following They had been walking down the street earlier when a red car he believed it was a Honda, with two African American males inside mad dogged them, basically meaning that they were giving them dirty looks. The car slowed down, they were looking at them, and then they
continued driving. These three young men didn't think too much of it, continued walking when suddenly they saw that same red car pull next to a white Cadillac that was parked on the street. They heard several gunshots, believing that those gunshots came from that red car, and the red car had now suddenly accelerated away. Believing that that car was going to circle around and now shoot at them. But at the opporpites of that car were going to shoot at them,
they ran and they entered into the house. So what initially was believed to be a strong case with obvious suspects turned out to be just another witness, if you will, a clue to what happened during this investigation. At the time, the Handling homicide detectives, who have since retired and moved out of state, said that they received the flood of information, more so regarding
who the victim, Nathan Taylor, was very sad. Basically, what they're telling the detectives at the time, Nathan had moved to the area around nineteen ninety seven, had moved to the Lancaster area with his family. His family was a military family. His father had retired from the Air Force after doing twenty plus years. He had two sisters, Rachel and Kinsey, who had
also served time in the military. So after graduating, Nathan, following in his family's footsteps, joined the US Army, where he served eight years, topping out at the rank of sergeant. He served three tours in Iraq in Afghanistan, and upon completing his time, had recently left the military and was attending Antelope Valley College where he was studying computer software engineering. He was close to graduating at the time of his murder, and it didn't back then and
still to this day, is puzzling. Why was he shot, Why was he targeted? Was he targeted? And he's basically assassinated in an area that he had grown up. And before we get back to Detective Tomlin, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for making us a part of your weekend and if you're listening through our podcast, thanks for downloading. There are many ways to contact the Unsolved team if you have an idea for a case, a comment, or a tip about one of the cases. We've covered.
If you happen to be listening on the live stream through the iHeartRadio app, we've made it really easy to hit us up. Just press that red microphone button it's called the talk back feature and leave us a message. Or you can always style pound two fifty from your cell phone and say the keyword unsolved. That's pound two fifty and the keyword unsolved. If you'd rather write your message, email the team unsolved at iHeartMedia dot com. That's unsolved at
iHeartMedia dot com. Now, if you're giving us an idea for an unsolved case, please give us as much detail as possible. In my experience, police and sheriff's departments don't have a lot of resources to research every random case that comes up, So if you provide a name, dates, locations, and other pertinent information, that really helps put your idea higher up on the list. Much more with Detective rich Tomlin from the Eli County Sheriff's Cold Case
Unit. But first, this is unsolved with Steve Gregory on kf I am six forty time. Now for a news update. KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio. I'm Steve Gregory. This is unsolved. If you're listening on the app, you can send us a tip about a case, a story idea, or a comment about the show. Just tap the red
microphone on the app and record your message. Welcome back. We are inside of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau talking with cold Kit Detective Rich Tomlin, who's been laying out the tragic death of Nathan Taylor, a thirty year old former Army sergeant who served three tours in rock in Afghanistan, only to be gunned down in his hometown of Lancaster. And he was about to graduate from Antelope Valley College with a degree in engineering. So, Detective Tomlin,
before the break, you were telling us that you know this. Basically, this guy was a saint, loved by all you know. My first question is going to be always is do you believe this guy was targeted and didn't have any game connections. No, I believe reviewing the file, listening to interviews that were conducted at that time, and trying to conduct new interviews, it appears that he was the victim of being in the wrong place at
the wrong time. I won't say you mistaken identity per se, but being in the wrong place in the wrong time, why why wouldn't you not say
mistaken identity? Mainly because of where the shooting occurred. Apparently back in twenty twelve, that area had two factions fighting with each other, and where Nathan was shot was in the heart of one of the one of those areas, and it was believed and information provided at that time that one specific caller actually stated that Nathan was not the target, but it was it did occur in that area, in that block because there were members of that one particular click
that lived on that block. And so basically the theory is these other individuals see a car, they probably saw him just actually pull in a park and they figure, well, he's parked in that area, it's a little bit after midnight, he's a young African American male, strong possibility that he might be a member of this group, and they rolled up and shot him. Okay, So I can ask, because you've done a number of cases for our show, and I know your background. You've got you've got gang gangs
in your background in terms of investigating. Is that typical for any kind of a gang in this case, you wouldn't even elevate them to a gang, but a clique is that sort of the difference, because I mean, the
last thing I want to do is glorify a gang here. But what I'm trying to understand is is it typical for them just to shoot somebody on an outside chance that they're getting the right person or don't or are they very specific because like in cartels, for instance, cartels have a code before they kill an assassinate. Does that same thing kind of you know, exist in these
gang slash clicks. Unfortunately no, And these members of these cliques will you hear the street term put in work, meaning they'll do shootings, they'll commit robberies, they'll commit crimes, and that what they're trying to do is elevate the status of these cliques to one day have enough members, have enough other individuals want to join them, and they get elevated in the gang world if
you um and unfortunately there is no rhyme or reason. Um you know, you always hear about uh these random shootings and unfortunately it is a part of the criminal world. So you're dealing more times than not, you're dealing with a bunch of amateur thugs. Correct, I mean, you're dealing with just people that are set out to be want to be or uh, you know, with no you know, I keep even saying again like a code, like an ethics. It's it's so um, you know, sort of conflicted
for me to even say that. But that's the reality of having covered these kinds of cases, is that a lot of these gangs and cartels as I mentioned, operate with an ethics and the code. And you're correct, Steve, when you say that, And there there is like you you'll hear that they'll use the term when you're talk into these gang members or cortel members.
You don't shoot at civilians quote unquote civilians, Okay, But unfortunately, where you get these youngsters and these individuals that were described possible suspects they were uh, late teens, early twenties, you have these guys who are just so bent on trying to make a name for themselves that they're reckless. And there they are not thinking clearly, anybody who picks up a gun and shooting at somebody that they don't even know have never seen, then I thinking clearly for
no reason. So in that aspect, and again, you know, we have to look an investigator has to look at everything with a John design, even the victim. And in this case, Nathan was a star, if you will. There's there's nothing in his background. Um. It's a very tragic thing that occurred, and at the time it heard, it received literally received national attention. Here's a young man who had just come back from serving, as I mentioned earlier, three tours over in Afghanistan and Iraq, only
to be killed in his own neighborhood. When we come back, I want to explore a little bit more about who is family is and if there was anything that the family can help you with. Also, you touched on something I wanted to also go back to, and it's the three guys that witnessed it. I want to talk a little bit about that. But first, This is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on camp I Am six forty Time now for a news update kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
I'm Steve Gregory. This is Unsolved. Welcome back to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department's Homicide Bureau. Were speaking with cold case Detective Rich Tomlin, a friend of the show who has been briefing us on the case of Nathan Taylor, thirty year old former sergeant with the Army, served eight years serving the country, served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, only to be gunned down in front of his brother's home in Lancaster, the town that he grew up
in. So, Detective, before the break, I was going to ask you a little bit about the three guys that witnessed. They say they heard the shooting. They didn't necessarily see the shooting, or did they see the shooting or they just heard the shooting. No, they did not see the shooting. They heard it. They heard it. But this they said that the same red car that they saw earlier that gave them sort of a dirty look, was also seen speeding away from the scene, presumably filled with the
shooter. Yes, and that alarmed them. They thought, well, these guys will come back and now possibly shoot at us, So they ran from the area. So what do you what do you know about these three guys looking through the case, They had no involvement. Again, they wrong place, wrong time, if you will. Um. They were forthcoming, two of them, anyway, We're very forthcoming U. The other third was hesitant for unknown reasons. Does ever give you a red flag? Actually, no,
um, doing this job as long as I have. Everybody is different, truly, everybody is different. And and sometimes we believe people should you're thinking people should react a certain way, and they don't. And it's nothing nefarious, it's nothing uh sneaky. You know, you have to take it for what it's worth. Of course you're going to delve in a little bit deeper. But then you know you kind of sess it like, Okay, this person just flat out does doesn't want to cooperate, period, just because
and and you can't really get around that. Okay, Well I didn't mean, and so the meanor after you. I just had always been curious about that, if that was the right flag, if someone didn't want to cooperate or be a witness. No um. And actually, um, the investigators didn't just leave it at that. They had other witnesses. Another witness stated they saw the red car stop in front of the mister Taylor's car. Um. You had an anonymous caller state that, Um, they weren't present at
the time, but they explained the reason. Again, this one clique was warring, if you will, with this other clique, and they were members of that they were responsible for shooting Nathan. It was it was he wasn't the intended specific target. But again because he was in that area, um, at the wrong time. Did he fit that he would fit the profile
of someone being on someone's turf? Correct? Now again, Um, based on all your experience covering gang cases, Um, could there have also been a diversion call when they call it to try to divert attention to say this beef was going on between these two clicks and trying to lay blame somewhere else. No, only because of a few reasons. Number one, Nathan had no type of record. I mean, yes, he had an outstanding record,
if you will, for serving his country. Right, Um, there was no You know, people will immediately say something about, well was there another woman involved? No, he was engaged to be married. So it's not that angle, if you will, it is, um. But what I mean, But what I also mean is that um uh. You know, when when you see a shooting like that and one click and or a gang uh sees that this is happening, they want to deflect any attention away
from them. So they're the ones that actually call you anonymously because you said it was an anonymous tip, right, yes, So no, have you ever seen that in your experience? No? Okay, no, when they call knowing that they may have been the click that did it, but they're trying to divert attention because nine times out of ten they actually want the credit for doing what they got it. They want they want to let the world know that they are ruthless. It makes sense that they're that that they'll do
stuff like that. They'll again quote unquote, put in work, got it, got it. Sorry, didn't mean to go off on that tangent, but you know how I go every time it comes up something. I'm curious about this stuff. That's a little bit and the audience is curious too. It's great. People need to understand that it's okay. So these three guys have been your witness, telling you everything that they can tell you. Um, you don't suspect that they're involved in any way, shape or form.
But these three guys, So if they were on the same turf as Nathan, was there any nexus of these three guys being connected to any of these cliques. No, and so they were just they were just random guys out for back and back In twenty twelve, and we're just talking to reality. The the two cliques that were at that time warring with each other were African American, mainly primarily ninety nine percent African American males. These individuals that we
spoke to were Hispanic. Got okay, so, um, you're not profiling, you're not, you know, but you have to deal in reality too, So no, they the mindset is if this one clique is looking for specific lead, the other clique, who they know, are uh, filled up with African American males. Sure, the Hispanic guys, they're not. They're not going to target if you will. What can you tell us about the brother Patrick? You know, not too much. Patrick was the younger
brother. Nathan wanted to spend time with him, wanted to make sure that he was on the right path, and it was a very tragic that Patrick last memory is gonna see his brother shot. Yeah, and Patrick provided at the time whatever information that he had available to you know what he saw and yeah, that's that's pretty much that. Well, you've gotten already in this. You had an anonymous phone call, you had people that came forward,
you have two well known clicks in the area. Frankly I'm a little surprised that you haven't at least honed in on a suspect or two. Well, well you don't hold that thought, because we're running out of time on this prank. When we come back, we're gonna wrap it up with rich Tollon, detective with the Cold Case Unit of the La County Sheriff's Department. But first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty time Now for a news update. Kf I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio
app. I'm Steve Gregory. This is unsolid. Welcome back to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Tom Inside Bureau. We are in Monterey Park. I'm sitting inside with rich tomon, a detective with the Cold Case Unit. We're in a large conference room in the center of the bureau, and we're talking about the case of Nathan Taylor, a thirty year old man who was killed
in front of his brother's home back in twenty twelve. Nathan was a veteran of the Army, served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and was gunned down while he sat in his car. In fact, he had just gone to something to eat, Detective before the break you said he was actually you told me that his burrito was still in his lap when he was gunned down, so he had literally just gotten back from picking up something to eat.
Were there any surveillance video at all? I mean, so if you look back where he picked up the burrito from, like a drive through or a restaurant, wherever he got it, did you think that maybe there were surveillance video? Was he being followed you think by this red car? Or do you think this was just a random the location where he bought the burrito from, video footage was obtained from there and at that time though, there was no car behind him. So our belief is somewhere along the line it was
random, you know. Conjecture is that red car knew exactly where they wanted to go, what area that which street they wanted to drive down, and Nathan just happened to be parked there. As far as right before the break, you asked the question about suspects, and that's the main reason why we appreciate you giving us this opportunity to talk about this case. Somebody, some persons obviously have to know exactly what happened and who is involved. And what
we are hoping for is time has now passed. It's been a decade. And in fact, his sister Rachel had reached out and made a phone call asking about the status of the case. And I spoke to her a couple of months ago and she was relaying what happened, her perspective on things, and I said, okay, well let me review it, let me get back to you first. So we had ordered up the cage, reviewed the facts of the case and delving more into it. This is definitely a case
that is solvable. There are cases, to be quite frank with you, there are no witnesses. There's just nothing there. It's the old blood spot on a street and nobody knows anything this one. There are strong possibilities. And another reason why the strong possibilities is where it occurred. Occurred in Lancaster. The people in Lancaster actually have a very good reputation within the law enforcement
arena of cooperative witnesses. So again, what I'm hoping for is the listeners are going to hear this case, They're going to remember this case, and they're going to be calling your station or calling sheriff's homicide and stepping up doing the right thing and pointing us in the right direction. Okay, So what about ring video on homes? No? No, no, what kind of neighborhood was this? It was a residential, single family homes, mostly retired
younger mix mix. It was a mixture. It was a mixture in any predominant ethnicity. No, it was, it was. It was also a diverse Okay. So because I don't know that area West Avenue h H seven, so I don't know if that's more rural or if it's more urban. You know, I can't speak for ten years ago looking at the photos. It was a little it was a combination. How about got that you know? Yeah, you know, but it's definitely occurred in a residential neighborhood,
single family homes. This has got to be highly frustrating because for the reasons you just pointed out a second ago, this is solvable. And I mean just listening to you telling me that you've had an anonymous tip, you had witnesses, you have a car, you have a lot of things that a lot of detectives never ever get in a case. So what's the missing piece here? I don't know you have to remember also, it's unfortunate, but the reality is this, I'm picking this up ten years later. Yeah,
so I have to do a lot of digging. I have to, my partner and I or the cool case unit, we have to. We have a lot of ground to cover, and it being so long ago, if you will, but not that long ago where people don't remember that. We have to freshen up the interviews. We have to go back and recontact these people and maybe they'll remember something or maybe they've heard something over the years that
will help assist us in finding out who is responsible for this. The three young men that you spoke with before, have you spoken to them when you after you've gotten the case? Not yet? Not yet, not yet, but I plan to. They are still in the area. They are are they They're still a Lancaster. I'm just gonna leave it in the area, okay. And so two of them anyway, and so we were able to re interview them, um more interested in the direction of the anonymous caller.
And one thing, the detectives that originally had this case, they did a good job as far as again, when I tell you this received national attention, it truly did. And so I want to be a military value. Absolutely, absolutely, And so they were getting a lot of clues and tips that they had to run down that led to nowhere. But the reality is, if you get if somebody calls in and says something, you have to spend the time to look into it. And so they spent a lot of
time, like what. I don't know how much time they spent, but I do know they covered a lot of clues that led to nowhere. You know, the anonymous caller, you say, you say you kind of want to focus in on that person as well. When you say anonymous caller? Did that tip come in through like a crime Stoppers? Did it come directly to homicide Barrow? Do you remember that call came in directly to I don't know how it originally came into. But the detectives actually spoke to this person.
Oh they did. Yes, So it was an anonymous initially, but they do have an identity on the person. No, no, and you get that, And we don't mind that. I don't mind receiving a phone call. Some money can lay it out. I don't want to give my name, but this is who you're looking at. This is the reason why now if they are a natural eye witness, and you know, you plead, beg and do whatever you can to try to get them to step up
and give their name. But if they're just giving you the background. In this case, it was a it was a broken relationship, okay, and someone was calling you know, so it will take whatever we can get rich Tom won't always a pleasure. I appreciate your help. Let's see if we can get anyone in the Lancaster area or someone who has any knowledge about a case from all this we're looking at at least eleven years ago, um about Nathan Taylor, an Army veteran who served eight years in the military only to
be killed in his hometown and Lancaster. You're convinced someone knows what happened exactly and they're still around, do you think yes? And and we are asking the someone to do the right thing. And again, Steve, I want to thank you for always giving us the opportunity to profile certain cases. Always a pleasure to detective. Thank you so much. And that's going to do
it Unsolved with Steve Gregory. The radio show is a production of the KFI News Department for iHeartMedia, Los Angeles and is produced by Steve Gregory and Jacob Gonzalez. Our field engineer is Tony Soaring Tino, and our digital producer is Nate Ward. To hear this and other episodes, just download Unsolved with Steve Gregory on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen. Coming up, it's Before the Coast with Clay Row. But first, this is kf I am six forty time now for a news update