Alleged murderer Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza, who was arrested Monday in the killing of 59-year-old Bambi Larson, was in the country illegally, with prior arrests for meth possession, kidnapping, and burglary.
The latest revelations in the murder of Larson in suburban San Jose are guaranteed to direct the Fox News outrage machine toward the Bay Area once again. The initial details in Monday’s arrest of suspect Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza, accused of breaking into Larson’s home on February 28 and stabbing her repeatedly, described the 24-year-old as a “transient,” “undocumented,” and “a Salvadorian national.” But his background is beginning to sound more alarming, as KGO reports that ICE had tried to detain him at least half a dozen times, and that station now describes him as a “self-admitted gang member with a long history of arrests.”
Memorial grows outside San Jose Home of the the late 59-year old #BambiLarsen. 24 yr old #CarlosCarranza arrested in her alleged murder. #SJPD Chief #EddieGarcia to hold news conference later today. pic.twitter.com/4ZvDuUVqOs
— @Rob Fladeboe kron4 (@KRON4RFladeboe) March 12, 2019
"In 2015 he was arrested for paraphernalia,” San Jose police chief Eddie Garcia told KGO. “In 2015, he was convicted of burglary in San Jose. In 2016, battery of an officer, resisting arrest and entering and occupying a property." DNA evidence has tied Carranza to Larson’s murder.
#BREAKING Undocumented immigrant arrested for murdering a San Jose woman inside her home. Carlos Carranza has a long criminal history and 6 prior ICE detainers. @nbcbayarea https://t.co/qCSLiOSWMO pic.twitter.com/8EXDFEtDsC
— Janelle Wang (@janellewang) March 12, 2019
San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo decried the policy too. “It is long overdue for the County to reconsider its current policy of ignoring ICE hold requests for predatory felons, which undermines the safety of the very immigrant communities we collectively seek to protect,” he said in a statement. “The County's policy has nothing to do with the City's decades-long policy of declining to have police engage in federal immigration enforcement, which was implemented to protect public safety. In contrast, the current County policy of ignoring detainer requests for individuals arrested for strike offenses and convicted of multiple felonies undermines public safety, and violates common sense.”
Here’s a look a the memorial outside of Bambi Larson’s San Jose home. Police say the man arrested for killing her is in the country illegally and has a long criminal history. @abc7newsbayarea pic.twitter.com/9uhRPXJ8JO
— Jobina Fortson (@JobinaFortson) March 13, 2019
A neighbor of Larson’s who spoke to KGO agreed. "I'm always surprised by the ones that have a long record," Thousand Oaks resident Ron Hines told the station. "How do they keep getting out? The justice system sometimes I think just fails us in that respect."
Carlos Carranza arrested Monday for the murder of 59-year-old Bambi Larson, who was found dead at her home in San Jose February 28.
— John H 🇺🇸 (@hpjohn1) March 13, 2019
Police say Carranza, who has no address and is a known gang member, stalked Larson. sanctuary cities protected him from ICE. https://t.co/SVLsy9dqvf
You get a sense where this may be going with the kind of coverage you see in the tweet above. For their part, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims they’d tried to detain Carranza nine times previously, and a tenth time on Tuesday, being denied each time per various California counties’ sanctuary policies.
“All nine known previously lodged detainers have been ignored and have allowed Arevalo-Carranza back onto our streets to re-offend,” ICE field office director Erik Bonnar said in a statement to KPIX. “How many more people have to be killed or injured before California lawmakers will open discussions to revise the state policy prohibiting local law enforcement agencies from working with ICE to apprehend dangerous criminal aliens?”
That assessment differs somewhat from the San Jose police department, who told KGO that ICE had tried to detain Carranza only six times (four times in Santa Clara County). What is not in question, though, is that law enforcement officials are unleashing a fresh round of furor against California sanctuary policies that figures to renew that debate statewide and nationally.
Related: San Jose Woman Kills Two Young Sons In Murder-Suicide [SFist]