Wheatland police investigating if homicide victim targeted because he was sex offender
Police investigators on Thursday are looking into the possibility that a Yuba County man was targeted this week in a fatal shooting at his Wheatland home because he was listed as a registered sex offender.
Investigators have not determined the motive behind the shooting that killed Ralph Mendez, and they have not ruled out that the suspect targeted Mendez because he is a convicted sex offender listed on California’s Megan’s Law website.
“That is one avenue we’re investigating right now,” Wheatland Police Chief Damiean Sylvester told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday.
Mendez, 55, was convicted in 2009 of committing lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14 years old and released from prison in 2011, according to the Megan’s Law website.
The police chief said Mendez was shot to death inside his home in the 200 block of G Street, and investigators had no indication that Mendez knew the shooting suspect, later identified as Rory Banks.
Mendez’s home is more than a mile west of Banks’ Wheatland home, which is several blocks east of Highway 65. Banks’ home was searched and nearby homes were evacuated after authorities found what they thought was a pipe bomb.
The fatal shooting was reported about 12:45 a.m. Wednesday at Mendez’s home. Officers arrived and found Mendez suffering from a gunshot wound, according to the Wheatland Police Department.
Authorities performed life-saving measures, but Mendez was pronounced dead at the scene. Banks, 44, was taken into custody without incident and booked into Yuba County Jail.
Police said the weapon believed to have been used in the shooting was recovered at the scene. Sylvester said this appeared to be an isolated incident and there was no longer a threat to the public.
The California Department of Justice and the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Police Department in the fatal shooting investigation. The police chief said authorities were searching Banks’ home when they spotted what appeared to be a pipe bomb with electrical wires.
Investigators backed off and left the home as authorities evacuated nearby residents as a precaution. Sylvester said the Butte County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad came to the home, scanned the suspicious device and determined it was not an explosive.
Investigators asked anyone with information about this fatal shooting to call Wheatland police Sgt. Chris Ellis at 530-633-2016.
