{"id":442585,"date":"2026-08-25T02:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442585\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:30:10","slug":"bakersfield-police-confirm-independence-shooting-was-gang-related-amid-new-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442585\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield police confirm Independence shooting was gang-related, amid new arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) &#8212; Bakersfield Police Department investigators arrested six other teenagers after the shooting at Independence High School.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">All of them known to police as members of the East Side Crips criminal street gang, law enforcement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They also said the deadly shooting at the school on Friday night is now officially confirmed gang-related.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The victim Levi Brown was a known associate of the East Side Crips,&#8221; said Kyle Ursery, a lieutenant with the Bakersfield Police Department, who oversees the department&#8217;s gang unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Watch 17 News, After Sunrise and more local news free on your smart TV. Click to learn more about KGET+;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kget.com\/plus\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Watch 17 News, After Sunrise and more local news free on your smart TV. Click to learn more about KGET+\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ursery said the teen arrested for the shooting, &#8220;he&#8217;s a member of the bloods,&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One day after Brown was shot in the chest and killed, the Bakersfield Special Enforcement Unit officers arrested three people, two 15-year-olds, and 18-year-old Jaheim Leverett.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They were found with a firearm, face coverings and gloves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Then early Monday morning, three more teens, including a 17-year-old, and 18-year-olds Sean Reyes and Adam Porras, also found with guns, masks and gloves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Regarding the individuals that were arrested they are suspected East Side Crips,&#8221; Ursery said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Bakersfield police say they may have been preparing to commit retaliatory acts of violence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Bakersfield police announce multiple arrests tied to Friday&#039;s deadly shooting at Independence HS;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kget.com\/news\/crime-watch\/bakersfield-police-announce-multiple-arrests-tied-to-fridays-deadly-shooting-at-independence-hs\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Bakersfield police announce multiple arrests tied to Friday&#8217;s deadly shooting at Independence HS\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Our Special Enforcement Unit is out right now, investigating these threats of retaliation, but nothing is concrete and I don&#8217;t believe there is any threat to our community,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The three 18-year-olds arrested have been booked on gang charges, conspiracy to commit crimes and carrying loaded firearms. The three juveniles booking charges have not been released since they are under 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 15-year-old who allegedly shot Levi Brown has not been officially charged by the District Attorney&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But he is 15, and according to California law, he cannot be tried as an adult. Meaning if he is convicted of Brown&#8217;s murder, he will be out of prison when he is 25-years-old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kget.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) &#8212; Bakersfield Police Department investigators arrested six other teenagers after the shooting at Independence High&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,154,324,6599,174545,175317,175167,78307],"class_list":["post-442585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-bakersfield-police","tag-bakersfield-police-department","tag-deadly-shooting","tag-independence-high-school","tag-kyle-ursery","tag-levi-brown","tag-special-enforcement-unit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}