Two men were shot at months apart in the same mountain area, and investigators are examining whether ethnicity was a factor.
PALOMAR MOUNTAIN, Calif. — A former San Diego television journalist is at the center of a growing criminal case after investigators linked him to two shootings on Palomar Mountain and local reports said both victims were asked whether they were Mexican before gunfire erupted.
The allegations against Ricardo Berron have pushed the case beyond a standard firearms investigation and into a broader question about motive. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office announced March 10 that Berron had been arrested in connection with shootings in October 2025 and February 2026, both in the Palomar Mountain area. Authorities publicly confirmed two assault with a deadly weapon counts and said detectives believed the same suspect was responsible for both crimes. Local reporting has gone further, saying investigators are treating the attacks as possible hate crimes and that one formal hate crime count may already have been added before Berron’s scheduled arraignment. That has turned a remote mountain road case into one watched closely across San Diego County.
The sequence described by investigators and victims is strikingly similar. In the February attack, the sheriff’s office said, a man had parked along a dirt shoulder in the 32900 block of South Grade Road near the summit while stargazing. Deputies said a suspect approached, produced a handgun and fired one round through the driver’s side window as the man sat inside his vehicle. The shooter then left in a vehicle, and the victim was not physically injured. According to local television accounts cited in later national coverage, the victim said the man had first asked if he was Mexican. Authorities have not released a transcript of that interview or any audio from the initial report, but they have said the details of the February shooting closely matched an earlier case in the same area. That overlap became the basis for probable cause in the arrest announcement.
The earlier case was more serious in terms of injury. On Oct. 6, 2025, a man parked at a scenic overlook on Palomar Mountain was shot in the arm. The victim later told local television that the encounter began with a question about his ethnicity. He said he answered yes when asked whether he was Mexican, then saw the gunman aim toward his head. “I raised my hands and asked him not to shoot,” he said in the interview. He added that he turned at the last instant and the bullet struck his arm instead of his face. That account has become central to public understanding of the case because the sheriff’s office has released only a short summary of the October shooting. Officials have not said whether the first victim knew the suspect, whether either man had been followed to the scene, or whether investigators believe the mountain location was chosen because victims were isolated and alone.
Berron was arrested March 10 at San Diego International Airport, according to the sheriff’s office. Deputies then searched his Chula Vista home and seized a 9mm handgun believed to have been used in at least one of the shootings. That detail may become a key piece of evidence if prosecutors rely on forensic testing to place the same weapon at more than one crime scene. Even so, several parts of the public record remain incomplete. The sheriff’s office has not released booking documents explaining whether the suspected hate crime theory is based only on victim statements or on additional evidence such as digital records, witness accounts or admissions. News outlets have described Berron as a former local television journalist with ties to Spanish-language media in San Diego. NBC 7 reported he had once worked as a freelance contributor for Telemundo 20’s sales and marketing department and had not worked there in two years.
The question of bias matters because it changes both the legal stakes and the public meaning of the case. In California, hate crime allegations can bring additional penalties if prosecutors show a defendant intentionally selected a victim because of a protected characteristic such as race or ethnicity. Local reporting has said both victims are Hispanic, and both were allegedly confronted with nearly the same question before shots were fired. That pattern, if backed by evidence, could become the backbone of the prosecution’s theory. If not, the case could narrow to firearms and assault allegations without a bias enhancement. Either way, the setting has deepened concern. Palomar Mountain is better known for observatory traffic, campgrounds and night sky viewing than for violent crime. The idea that someone may have targeted people in quiet roadside pullouts has unsettled visitors who use the summit roads after dark.
The case also carries a layer of public interest because of the suspect’s prior work in television. News organizations routinely cover crime, public safety and race, so the arrest of a onetime reporter or station contributor can bring added scrutiny from viewers who recognize the name or face. That attention has sharpened since Berron was released after posting bail, according to local reports. One outlet said he was held on $100,000 bail and is due in court March 17. After his release, local television reported, Berron did not answer questions. His wife told one station that deputies had arrested the wrong person. That statement suggests the defense may challenge the identification, the victims’ descriptions and any forensic claims about the handgun recovered at the home. Court filings, once available, may show whether prosecutors believe they have enough to allege a deliberate pattern of targeting Hispanic men in the same mountain corridor.
For now, the case stands at an early but unusually charged stage. Detectives have linked one suspect to two shootings. One victim survived a wound to the arm. Another escaped injury after a bullet pierced his vehicle. The sheriff’s office has confirmed the arrest and seizure of a handgun, but many of the most sensitive details remain outside the formal record released so far. Those gaps leave the coming arraignment as the next major test of the case. Prosecutors will have to decide how fully to describe motive, what counts to pursue and whether the evidence supports a bias-driven narrative or a more limited assault case.
As of Friday, investigators were still describing the case as active, and the next public milestone was Berron’s expected March 17 arraignment in San Diego County court.
Author note: Last updated March 13, 2026.