San Jose: Police seek public help to find suspect, identify victim in fatal shooting

The shooting was reported May 9 at an encampment near McLaughlin Avenue and the Interstate 280 overpass, police say.

SAN JOSE — Investigators are turning to the public to help them identify the victim of a fatal shooting at an encampment last month, and also to find the man suspected in the killing, police said.

The shooting was reported the afternoon of May 9 on McLaughlin Avenue near the Interstate 280 overpass, according to San Jose police. Responding officers found a man suffering from a gunshot wound, and he was taken to a hospital.

On May 12, the man died from his injuries, and he remains unidentified by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office. The death marked the 13th homicide of the year investigated by San Jose police, a total that has since reached 17.

Monday, police described the victim as a man of East Indian descent between 30 and 34 years old, standing 6 feet tall and weighing about 140 pounds, with straight black hair and a tattoo of a trident on his right arm. Police added that he was known as “Kumar” around the encampment and may have attended San Jose schools between 2006 and 2010.

Police have identified Joseph “Jo Jo” Martinez as the man suspected of shooting the victim, and are working to find him. Martinez was described by police as a Latino man standing 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing 115 pounds with a teardrop tattoo near his left eye.

Martinez is also the latest entry on two “most wanted” social media pages created by the San Jose Police Department and announced Monday.

Anyone with information for investigators can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283 or email Detective Sgt. Julien Taylor at 4257@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Mike Harrington at 4365@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.