Correctional Officer Jesus ’Jesse’ Sanchez, 24, was ambushed and fatally shot on October 6, 1972, in Chino, California. He was escorting a 35-year-old inmate from the California Institution for Men to a court hearing in San Bernardino when two cars forced the prison van off Edison Avenue near Euclid Avenue. The assailants handcuffed Sanchez and his colleague and then shot both men; Sanchez died of his wounds and his colleague survived by feigning death.

Investigators tied the ambush to members of the Venceremos Revolutionary Organization. Within two weeks two people surrendered to the FBI and named additional participants. By December 1972 five individuals connected to the group had been captured; the liberated prisoner was convicted of first-degree murder on December 27, 1972, and received a life sentence along with a federal 20-year sentence for interstate kidnapping.

Officer Sanchez’s death prompted increased security for inmate transports. If anyone knew Officer Sanchez, the transport route, or saw activity near Edison Avenue and Euclid Avenue on October 6, 1972, please come forward with information.