Brando Javier Lerma Noris, a 22-year-old Hispanic/Latino male, was killed in a burst of gunfire that turned a parking lot on Elkington Avenue in East Salinas into the scene of a triple homicide late on September 28, 2015, with his death recorded the next day, September 29. That night, police were sent to 726 Elkington Avenue around 9:30 p.m. after reports of shots fired.
When officers arrived, they found Brando and Brianna Gossett inside a vehicle in the apartment complex parking lot, both already dead. A third victim, 17-year-old Bryan Hernandez, was found outside the car, badly wounded. He was rushed to Natividad Medical Center but died shortly afterward. Investigators said all three victims had been shot multiple times, a detail that made the savagery of the attack unmistakable from the very beginning.
In the first hours after the shooting, the picture that emerged was chaotic and frightening. Witnesses reported seeing two men dressed in dark clothing running from the scene, and police said at least two suspects were being sought. Detectives quickly came to believe the killings were gang related, placing Brando’s death inside the broader violence that had gripped Salinas during one of its deadliest years. Reports from the time described the neighborhood as another place where families had become used to the sound of sirens and gunfire, but even in that climate, three people cut down in one attack carried a particular shock. Brando’s killing was not described as a random accident of the scene; it unfolded as part of an ambush that left almost no chance for escape.
As the case was reported publicly, Brando was identified as one of the young people at the center of a brutal attack that left investigators chasing a pair of fleeing gunmen and neighbors wondering who had opened fire and why. Police statements said the motive was not immediately known, even as the case was treated as gang related. Early coverage also indicated that Brando and Brianna had ties to Nevada, while Bryan was from Salinas, adding to the sense that several lives from different circles had collided in one terrible moment in that parking lot. The facts released in those first days were stark and limited: multiple victims, multiple gunshots, two men running into the darkness, and no immediate arrests.
What followed appears to have been a long silence in public records tied specifically to Brando’s case. Contemporary reports said no one had been arrested in the immediate aftermath, and I did not find reliable public reporting that clearly identified a named suspect, announced a direct arrest for Brando’s killing, or documented a trial and conviction specifically for his homicide. Later federal gang prosecutions in Salinas described organized murder crews carrying out a series of hunts and shootings during the 2015 to 2018 period, but the public materials I found did not clearly tie Brando Javier Lerma Noris by name to a filed murder charge or conviction in a way that can be stated as settled fact. Based on the public reporting available online, the case was treated from the start as gang related, two male suspects were reported fleeing the scene, and no clearly documented arrest or named suspect in Brando’s killing was publicly confirmed in the sources I found.
