New records detail Boise-area shooting, six arrested after ‘innocent bystander’ dies

The Nampa Police Department has charged six people with various crimes related to a shooting that resulted in the death of an “innocent bystander” in a Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot in 2022, according to a Friday news release.

The incident dates to Sept. 1, 2022, when Nampa police said officers responded to a shooting at a restaurant at 8:51 p.m. in the 2100 block of North Cassia Street.

Police found Joe Flores, 23, of Caldwell, in the parking lot with gunshot wounds and began performing life-saving measures, but he died at the scene, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.

Nampa Police Chief Joe Huff said those arrested were “gang members,” and each of the following charges came with a gang enhancement.

• Brian Moreno, 23, of Nampa, was charged with first-degree murder and rioting.

• Lazaro Vela, 18, of Nampa, was charged with attempted first-degree murder and rioting.

• Pedro Navarro Jr., 21, of Caldwell, was charged with aiding and abetting first-degree murder, and rioting.

• Two Nampa men, ages 24 and 21, were accused of being accessories for harboring and protecting a person who committed a felony, and rioting.

• A 19-year-old Nampa man was charged with rioting.

The men were indicted after a Canyon County grand jury found there was probable cause to charge them.

Police said a cellphone video showed members of two separate gangs in the Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot. In the video, one person could be heard calling out derogatory names, and another person told Moreno to get a gun before three gunshots rang out, according to the criminal complaint.

Flores was “an innocent bystander, caught in the crossfire, during an incident derived from a gang dispute,” and not a member of either gang, police said in the release and complaint.

The grand jury said Moreno “did willfully, unlawfully, deliberately, and with malice aforethought, and with premeditation, kill and murder” Flores by “shooting him in the back,” according to indictment documents.

Jurors said Navarro aided and abetted in the murder by “encouraging” Moreno to “get his gun prior to the shooting.”

Vela attempted to murder Navarro by shooting him multiple times, according to the jury’s indictment. Police said the gunshot wounds were “non-life-threatening.”

Gang enhancements can be added to any charge “knowingly committed for the benefit or at the direction of, or in association with, any criminal gang or criminal gang member,” according to the Idaho Criminal Gang Enforcement Act.

Prosecutors can ask for up to a year of additional jail time for a misdemeanor with a gang enhancement. For a felony, a minimum of two years and a maximum of five are added.

The department said its detectives “conducted countless interviews” and worked with the Nampa Police Department Crime Lab to process evidence in this case.

“This investigation has been ongoing since day one. The work happening behind the scenes has been nonstop, and it has obviously paid off with a solid case and multiple arrests,” Nampa Police Chief Joe Huff said in the release.

Huff said some “criticized his department” for the pace of the investigation, but his detectives “produced great results.”