SAN JOSE — Police on Friday announced recent arrests in a pair of separate San Jose homicides, including a stabbing earlier this month and a shooting in April.
One case involved a fatal stabbing reported just after 2:30 a.m. Aug. 4 in a strip mall parking lot on Story Road near Adrian Way in East San Jose, where responding officers found a man suffering from stabbing injuries. He died at the scene, and has since been identified by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office as Elshaddai Sipa, 22, of San Jose.
The attacker fled before officers arrived. A San Jose Police Department news release states that later in the day, investigators arrested 45-year-old Marino Diaz, of San Jose, in connection with the killing. He was booked into the county Main Jail in San Jose. Records show he was charged Aug. 6 — under the name Mario Diaz — and is currently being held without bail.
Police also announced the arrest of a fifth suspect in a fatal shooting on Sunset Court on April 1. In that case, officers were called just before 4 a.m. for a report of a shooting and found a gravely wounded man. Rigoberto Suarez Tapia, 45, later died at a hospital.
An ensuing investigation identified five suspects in that shooting: Lawrence Eti, 36, of San Jose; Irma Ordonez, 27, of San Jose; Michael Tran, 43, of Las Vegas; Rodolfo Lopez Pinon, 34, of San Jose; and Kevin Le, a 25-year-old San Jose resident.
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Eti and Ordonez were arrested June 3, and Tran was arrested July 14, all in San Jose, while Lopez Pinon was already in Santa Clara County jail custody for an unrelated case when detectives secured his arrest warrant. All four were booked on suspicion of murder, while Le initially could not be located.
Last week, investigators made a public plea for tips about Le’s whereabouts, and that appears to have borne fruit, because police said Le was arrested Aug. 11 in Colorado with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service. Police added that Le is expected to be extradited to San Jose and booked into jail, but did not give a timetable on that transport.
The April 1 shooting was the city’s sixth homicide of the year, while the Aug. 4 stabbing was the 17th.
Anyone with information for investigators in either case can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283. Email tips about the April 1 homicide can be sent to Detective Sgt. John Van Den Broeck at [email protected] or Detective Amanda Estantino at [email protected]; emails about the Aug. 4 stabbing can be sent to Detective Sgt. Richard Martinez at [email protected] or Detective Christina Jize at [email protected].