This past Saturday, October 10, at around a quarter past 10pm, a report of a shooting came into the Milpitas Police Department (MPD) from Milpitas’ Hilton Garden Inn. Upon arrival, officers discovered gunshot victim Causandra Inocencio in the hotel parking lot. Inocencio was still alive at the crime scene but passed away at a nearby hospital.
MPD swiftly partnered with the Milpitas Police Officers’ Association and a Los Altos organization called Mothers Against Murder to offer a $20,000 reward for information that lead to the arrest and conviction of the murder suspect, Kevin James Gitmed, a blond-haired, brown-eyed white male standing 6-foot-1 and weighing 250 pounds. Witnesses at the scene had seen Gitmed on a motorcycle. A warrant was soon put out for his arrest.
As the week progressed, on October 14, Detectives caught up with Gitmed in Merced County. He was staying at a hotel there. The detectives, along with the Merced County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals Service, appeared at the hotel and served a search and arrest warrant. Then Merced Sheriff’s Office personnel began to call for Gitmed’s prompt exit and surrender.
Gitmed did not respond.
More attempts to get the suspect to emerge and surrender followed. After he was silent for a time, Deputies poured into his hotel room.
Inside, Gitmed was found dead.
The Merced County Sheriff’s Office has undertaken the investigation of the murder suspect’s death.Â
