PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Caldwell, Idaho
May 29, 2026
REPEAT GANG SHOOTER RECEIVES TWELVE-YEAR SENTENCE
Caldwell, Idaho – May 29, 2026 – Lazaro Vela was sentenced today in Canyon County District Court for Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon Enhancement in connection with a gang-related shooting in Nampa. Prosecutors requested a thirty-year concurrent sentence, with twenty of those years fixed.
On September 1, 2022, Vela – a member of the Brown Pride Surenos (BPS) street gang – pulled a handgun and shot a Norteno gang member three times in the parking lot of the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Nampa. Brian Moreno, a Norteno, then shot innocent bystander Joe Flores in an attempt to retaliate. Moreno was previously convicted of first-degree murder in February 2026 for that shooting.
In 2023, a year later, Vela was involved in another gang shooting in Grove Plaza parking lot in Boise. He fired several rounds into a group of rival Norteno gang members during a confrontation in the Grove Plaza parking lot. A 16-year-old female juvenile was struck in the arm, suffering a gunshot wound and non-displaced fracture. Another victim was possibly struck as well. In that case, Vela was convicted at trial by an Ada County jury and sentenced to twenty years in prison with ten years fixed.
This was Vela’s second gang-related public shooting, and prosecutors recommended a minimum of thirty years of prison with at least twenty before becoming parole eligible. Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Boyd stated: “This man has actually shot people in two separate gang shootings in public places in our community. He presents an unacceptable risk to take with our citizens’ lives, and incarceration is the only way to protect them.”
Although the prosecutor requested a thirty-year concurrent sentence, Judge Gabriel McCarthy sentenced Vela to seven years fixed followed by five years indeterminate, to be served consecutive to the Ada County sentence.
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