Ivan Ortegon-Couoh, a 41-year-old Hispanic/Latino man, was killed on the night of July 25, 2024, along the railroad tracks near the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California. Ortegon-Couoh was living in a small structure along the tracks between 50th and 66th avenues when the attack occurred. Witnesses placed the shooting at about 10:20 p.m. Accounts later presented in the investigation and court proceedings described an unusually distinctive assailant approaching the area in a white one-piece
jumpsuit and a clown mask.
According to witness accounts, the masked person silently approached the place where Ortegon-Couoh was staying and appeared to be searching for someone. Ortegon-Couoh reportedly asked the approaching person whether he was looking for him. Prosecutors later alleged that the masked gunman raised a firearm and fired twice at Ortegon-Couoh before walking away into the darkness. Witness testimony indicated that people nearby did not immediately come to his aid. By the time authorities arrived, investigators found that Ortegon-Couoh had suffered gunshot wounds and that his body also appeared to have been struck by a train.
The case initially developed in several confusing directions. Witnesses told investigators that shortly before the killing, Ortegon-Couoh had been arguing with his girlfriend and that he may have thrown rocks at her. Investigators also learned that he had walked away with a man who lived in a nearby shed. Because that man was reportedly seen leaving the area after the shooting, police detained him. Officers subsequently discovered that he had an outstanding warrant involving gun possession and arrested him on that matter. He denied killing Ortegon-Couoh, however, and other witnesses supported his account. Authorities ultimately did not charge him with the homicide.
Police also investigated another possible suspect, described in early reporting as a man in his 20s. That individual was arrested and remained in Santa Rita Jail at the time because of an alleged parole violation, but he was not charged with Ortegon-Couoh's murder. Investigators pursued additional leads as they tried to determine who had been behind the clown mask. One person who supplied information to police implicated different individuals at various points, but investigators were unable to corroborate those claims, and DNA testing eventually excluded at least one person who had been suggested as a possible suspect.
A major break came when investigators recovered the clown mask from behind a short wall near the railroad tracks. The mask was submitted for DNA testing. Authorities said biological material recovered from the chin area of the mask was linked to Jesus Perez-Munoz. That evidence shifted the investigation toward Perez-Munoz and provided prosecutors with a physical connection between him and the disguise witnesses said the killer had worn.
On August 21, 2024, roughly four weeks after the killing, police raided Perez-Munoz's recreational vehicle, which was parked on 54th Avenue in Oakland. Investigators reported finding what they believed was the firearm used to kill Ortegon-Couoh, along with two additional guns. One of the weapons was a sawed-off shotgun. Authorities also reported recovering more than 100 rounds of live ammunition, as well as a methamphetamine pipe and false identification documents. Perez-Munoz was arrested, and the evidence collected from the mask, the RV and the continuing witness investigation became central to the prosecution.
The case eventually went before a jury. Prosecutors sought to prove that Perez-Munoz was the masked gunman who approached Ortegon-Couoh on the railroad tracks and shot him. The defense faced the prosecution's DNA evidence linking Perez-Munoz to the clown mask as well as the weapons recovered during the search of his RV. Jurors ultimately rejected the most serious version of the prosecution's murder theory by acquitting Perez-Munoz of first-degree murder, meaning they did not find the requirements for that charge proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The jury nevertheless found Perez-Munoz guilty of second-degree murder in Ortegon-Couoh's death. He was also convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and of possessing the sawed-off shotgun found when police searched his RV. The verdict, reported in late July 2026, transformed a case that had begun with multiple possible suspects and conflicting witness information into a homicide prosecution ending in a murder conviction. As of the latest reporting located, the publicly available information established Perez-Munoz's conviction but did not provide a subsequently imposed sentence.
