GILBERT, Ariz. — A Gilbert police report shows investigators were made aware of a group of teens who talked about committing dozens of assaults by January of 2023, months before the horrific death of 16-year-old Preston Lord.
Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg has long said his department either was not aware of teen violence cases prior to Lord's death, or the cases they were aware of involved different suspects and locations so there was no way to link the cases or identify a trend of teen violence.
“As much information that’s out there now, that wasn’t available prior to November and December," said Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg in February.
The newly released report paints a different picture.
Report details December 2022 assault involving brass knuckles
The police report details a vicious assault that happened on December 30, 2022 outside of the Gilbert In-N-Out. It was released after 12News made a public records request for the documents.
16-year-old Connor Jarnagan was approached by a group of teens. One teen demanded money from him and when he refused, a suspect struck him in the back of the head while wearing brass knuckles. Jarnagan needed staples in his head.
One suspect, Tyler Freeman, was charged in the case.
In the days following the assault, investigators were made aware of multiple individuals in several Snapchat group chats openly talking to each other about committing other assaults.
'We’re gettin charged w 30+ assaults'; East valley teens discuss assaults in Snapchat messages
The group chats reviewed by police were named "The Streets", "Goofy Goobers" and "Untouchable Ninjas."
One message read, “U got extra knuckls? I’m tryin to send these kids to hospital.”
Other messages in the group chats say:
“They are knowing who we all are”
“Gotta chill on the fighting they building a case”
“5 incidents w brass knuckles”
“I think we just need to become an official gang already.”
“As soon as they find out we r the ones who got into all the fights we’re gettin charged w 30+ assaults.”
Stephanie Jarnagan, Connor Jarnagan's mother, said they were disappointed and disturbed after reading the report.
“It clearly shows there were major red flags with this group of teenage thugs who went on to continue to terrorize teens in the East Valley, even after we were able to prosecute one of them," Jarnagan said.
Despite possessing the damning social media conversations, the Gilbert police department did not classify a group known as the Gilbert Goons as a hybrid street gang until May of this year.
Gilbert PD spokesperson says they investigated all cases reported to them
A Gilbert PD spokesperson defended the department's actions when reached by email on Tuesday.
"The Snapchat thread in question involves numerous conversations and individuals. The teens responsible for making these specific statements were thoroughly investigated by the Gilbert Police Department," said Brenda Carrasco, a Gilbert PD spokesperson. "At the time this information was received in 2023, Gilbert PD had six total reported cases of group teen violence in our community with eight arrests having been made in those cases."
Carrasco said outside of the Snapchat thread, they had no additional evidence of gang activity or references to gang activity.
"A singular vague reference is not sufficient evidence to establish a criminal street," Carrasco said.
Ten months after Gilbert PD obtained the Snapchat messages, Preston Lord was killed in a group assault outside of a Halloween party in Queen Creek. Seven juveniles and adults have been charged with first-degree murder for his death.
In the wake of Lord's murder and amid public pressure from the Gilbert community, Gilbert PD re-examined its previous teen violence cases and made numerous arrests.
“We saw some teen violence cases prior to Preston Lord's death. They were sporadic as far as location and time after Preston Lord was killed, that's when we had a huge influx of information," Soelberg said in a March interview.
Gilbert PD's spokesperson said they investigated every case that was reported to them.