Crime & Safety
Tips Lead to Arrest in Deadly Prospect Street Shooting
The double shooting Wednesday was not gang-related, police say, but the motive has not been released.
A 34-year-old Watsonville man suspected of fatally was arrested Thursday night, police reported.
Michael Miller was picked up around 8:30 p.m. at a home on the 500 block of Argos Circle, police reported.
His arrest came after detectives got information "from various sources" including community members, Watsonville police Sgt. Saul Gonzalez reported in a prepared statement.
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Miller allegedly gunned down and a 22-year-old Santa Cruz woman in a mixed-use building at Prospect and Madison streets around 3 a.m. Wednesday. The woman made it up the street, where she knocked on the front door of a home seeking help.
Police have said she was first unwilling to cooperate with the investigation and is now unable to because of the severity of her injuries.
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Investigators have not identified what led to the violence, "but we can clearly say it was not gang motivated and Mower was specifically targeted," Gonzalez reported.
“We have some ideas but nothing that’s solidified," Gonzalez said, adding that the two men knew each other.
The break in the case developed quickly, Gonzalez said. In the afternoon, Gonzalez said . Just a few hours later, tips came in that focused the investigation on Miller as the prime suspect.
"He was on our radar early on in the investigation," Gonzalez explained. " … His name had come up not necessarily as a suspect but as a person we wanted to speak to.”
Miller was arrested shortly thereafter. Watsonville police, with assistance from the county's Gang Task Force and the District Attorney's Office, executed a search warrant at the Argos Circle home Thursday night where they believed Miller had been staying. They also impounded three vehicles to search.
The search turned up the gun investigators believe Miller used in the double-shooting, according to police.
The state Department of Justice will process the evidence, police reported.
Miller was booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail on suspicion of murder, attempt murder, and gun enhancements. He has no bail and is expected in court as early as Tuesday.
The injured woman is recovering, Gonzalez said.
"She’s doing good. She’s going to survive," he said. "She definitely has some major damage to her but she’s going to survive.”
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