The investigation into whether perpetrators of teen violence in the East Valley can be classified as members of a gang is making headway, Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg said Feb. 8.
“We have made significant progress on our investigations to determine if any of these violent incidents are gang related,” Soelberg said. “We continue to pursue that investigation. Once we conclude that investigation, we will be meeting with the Maricopa and Pinal County attorney's office to determine if it has any impacts on any of our cases or any of the cases from other jurisdictions.”
Soelberg, speaking at his weekly news briefing on teen violence, promised to brief the media once that investigation is concluded.
He said there are nine or 10 criteria for considering whether a group can be considered a gang.
“You don't to have all of those, but you have to have some of those in order to be classified as a gang,” Soelberg said. “And so when we do our briefing on that, we will go into detail of what those criteria are and if we met those criteria on any of these individuals.”
Gilbert police are up to 25 arrests in incidents of teen-on-teen violence since the start of 2024, Soelberg said. And the department continues to look for tips from the public on what he said are now 10 investigations of such cases.
Soelberg asked the public for additional help on the cases, including a parking garage assault from December 2022 in which there already have been four arrests. Soelberg said one of those arrests, however, has been sent back to police for further investigation.
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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