Three suspects charged with intentional hit-and-run of Pasco pedestrian

Three men were charged Friday with aiming their car at a pedestrian on a Pasco sidewalk and hitting him.

The incident Tuesday evening may have been in retaliation for a fatal shooting at a Kennewick apartment complex less than 24 hours earlier.

David Mendez, the alleged driver in the hit-and-run attack, reportedly was at the apartment when his friend is believed to have been killed by rival gang members.

Mendez, 20, Ricardo Villa, 21, and Ramiro J. Villa, 25, are scheduled to appear Aug. 23 in Franklin County Superior Court on the new charges of first-degree assault and failure to stop at the scene of an accident.

Both charges are felonies.

In the meantime, they remain in the Franklin County jail on $100,000 bail each.

The pedestrian, David Galvez, was on the sidewalk at North 22nd Avenue and West Henry Street when he was hit at 6:41 p.m. Tuesday, according to court documents.

Galvez would only tell Pasco police that he believed the occupants of the white Chevy Cavalier were all wearing red. He refused to give other details, saying “that was not how he does things,” documents said.

Galvez reportedly is a member of Florencia, which is a Sureño sect. He was treated at Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco and released.

Mendez is an alleged member of the Norteño gang. His friend, Jorge Antonio Jimenez, was a fellow Norteño.

Jimenez, 20, was at home at the Heatherstone Apartments on Monday night when he saw two men carving their rival gang insignia into the paint of his parked SUV, court documents said.

Jimenez confronted the men and was shot in the stomach and leg. Some friends helped Jimenez back to his second-floor apartment, where he died before Kennewick police and paramedics arrived.

Mendez had tried to fight off the shooting suspects before they actually opened fire on Jimenez, according to investigators.

Mendez was connected to the hit-and-run because he allegedly used his mother’s car. The car was found with scrapes, dents and a possible human hair on the hood, documents said.

Mendez was arrested, along with the Villas, at his Kennewick apartment.

This story was originally published August 19, 2016 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Three suspects charged with intentional hit-and-run of Pasco pedestrian."