After a week long investigation, Oakdale Police have made one arrest and are anticipating the arrest of a second identified suspect from the Oct. 17 shooting near the Oakdale Market where a 23-year-old male from Riverbank was shot two times.
On the day of the shooting, police had surrounding streets closed for hours and conducted a door-to-door dragnet for the shooter.
In the course of the investigation, detectives obtained surveillance video from the store and later identified two of the seven males involved in the shooting.
On Friday afternoon, Oct. 25, police arrested a 14-year-old juvenile male in connection with the shooting.
Police have identified the outstanding suspect from the shooting as Eric Michael Sarber, 18, out of the Modesto-Riverbank area.
Oakdale Police Sergeant Brian Shimmel said the juvenile and Sarber were identified through store video and police had been seeking the subjects since their identification. Both are identified Norteno gang members, according to police.
At 12:18 p.m. on Friday, police spotted the 14-year-old suspect in front of Oakdale High School. Units converged on the suspect and took him into custody. Another juvenile with the suspect was also taken into custody for being in possession of a knife.
Police said the juvenile had been expelled from the school and students at the high school were not affected by the arrest.
Shimmel said the juvenile was identified by various Oakdale officers due to prior police contacts after the store video was circulated. Riverbank Police Services and Stanislaus County Probation Department assisted with the identification of Sarber.
“We’re working on identifying and contacting a number of other subjects from the incident,” added Shimmel.
Shimmel said the investigation revealed the incident was a shoot-out between Norteno and Sureno gang members resulting from prior disagreements and confrontations.
The juvenile was booked into Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall for attempted murder and criminal street gang enhancements.
Anyone with information regarding this case or the whereabouts of Sarber should contact Oakdale Police, Sergeant Shimmel or Detective Julio Rosa at (209) 847-2231.
