Case No. DHF-065 | Subject: Marco Antonio Perez, 15, and Nathaniel Flores, 13, both of Salinas, California, shot dead near Jetty Road at Moss Landing State Beach, Monterey County, California, shortly before 2 a.m. on Monday 2 November 2026; Donald William Breeden, 18, of Greenfield, was arrested on Thursday 5 November 2026 and charged with two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements | Date: Monday 2 November 2026 | Location: Jetty Road, Moss Landing, Monterey County, California, USA | Status: CHARGED
Posted: 9 November 2026
Status stamp: CHARGED
Image note for readers: All images in this file are original illustrations created for Dark History Files. They are atmospheric artwork, not photographs and not real evidence. No image in this file depicts Marco Antonio Perez, Nathaniel Flores, Donald William Breeden, any member of any family, any investigator, any official, or any real person, and no image depicts any act of violence, any death, any arrest, or any weapon.
Caption: Case card for DHF-065 — the Moss Landing case, Jetty Road, Monterey County, California. Status: CHARGED.
THE FILE CARD
| Case File No. | DHF-065 |
| Subject | Marco Antonio Perez, 15, and Nathaniel Flores, 13, both of Salinas, California, were shot dead near Jetty Road at Moss Landing State Beach, Monterey County, California, shortly before 2 a.m. on Monday 2 November 2026. Donald William Breeden, 18, of Greenfield, California, was arrested on Thursday 5 November 2026 and charged with two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements. He is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent. |
| Date | Monday 2 November 2026 (shooting, shortly before 2 a.m.); Tuesday 3 November 2026 (the two boys identified); Thursday 5 November 2026 (two search warrants served; Breeden arrested); Friday 6 November 2026 (Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release announcing the arrest). |
| Location | Jetty Road, Moss Landing, Monterey County, California, USA — Moss Landing is an unincorporated coastal community on Monterey Bay, roughly halfway between Santa Cruz and Monterey. |
| Status | CHARGED |
| Investigating authorities | Monterey County Sheriff's Office (Sheriff Tina M. Nieto). California State Parks personnel and California Highway Patrol officers responded to the shooting with sheriff's deputies on 2 November 2026. |
| Person charged | Donald William Breeden, 18, of Greenfield, California. He was arrested on Thursday 5 November 2026 and charged with two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements in connection with the deaths of Marco Antonio Perez and Nathaniel Flores. He was booked into the Monterey County Jail with bail set at $2,035,000. No plea, attorney, arraignment detail or trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here. He is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent. |
| One-line summary | Shortly before 2 a.m. on Monday 2 November 2026, gunfire was reported along Jetty Road at Moss Landing State Beach in Monterey County, California. Deputies found two teenage boys from Salinas dead at the scene. Three days later, after two search warrants in Greenfield and King City, detectives arrested Donald William Breeden, 18, and charged him with two counts of murder. What happened on Jetty Road in the minutes before the gunfire, and why, has not been publicly explained. |
Why this file is stamped CHARGED: The stamp records only the position as it stands on 6 November 2026. Monterey County sheriff's detectives arrested Donald William Breeden on Thursday 5 November 2026, after serving two search warrants, and charged him with two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements, and the sheriff's office announced the arrest the following day. A charge is not a conviction: Breeden is presumed innocent, no court has tested the evidence against him, and no plea or trial date has been publicly reported. The stamp has to carry the other half of the story too. The authorities have not said what led to the shooting, they have not said what relationship, if any, there was between Breeden and the two boys, and they have not explained the basis of the gang enhancements. This file says all of that plainly, in the same breath as the charge, because the charge and the open questions around it are both facts. If Breeden enters a plea, or if the case goes to trial, this file will be updated, dated, and re-stamped if the facts require it — never quietly rewritten.
THE CASE
A road beside the beach
Moss Landing is a small unincorporated community on the shore of Monterey Bay, in Monterey County, California, roughly halfway between Santa Cruz and Monterey. Jetty Road runs beside Moss Landing State Beach, where the harbour meets the open coast. It is the kind of road that is empty in the middle of the night, and it was empty, or nearly so, when the gunfire was reported.
Shortly before 2 a.m. on Monday 2 November 2026, Monterey County sheriff's deputies, California State Parks personnel and California Highway Patrol officers answered reports of gunshots along Jetty Road. When they arrived, they found two people dead at the scene. A third person later arrived at a local hospital with a gunshot wound. A fourth person was taken from the scene to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, and those injuries were later determined to be unrelated to the shooting. That is the whole of what the sheriff's office has said about the people who were there that night, and this file does not add to it.
The two who died at the scene were boys. The sheriff's office did not name them on the night of the shooting, and for the first day the public record held only the place, the hour, and the fact that two teenagers had been killed on a beach road in the dark. The state beach was closed during the initial investigation. Beyond that, the authorities released almost nothing, and for three days the case sat in that silence: a shooting with no stated cause, no stated relationship between the people involved, and no one in custody.
Two boys from Salinas
On Tuesday 3 November 2026, the sheriff's office identified the two boys as Marco Antonio Perez, 15, and Nathaniel Flores, 13, both residents of Salinas. Salinas is the county seat of Monterey County, a farming city inland from the coast, and it is the city both boys called home. The sources relied on here say nothing more about either boy — no school, no family statement, no account of what had brought them to Moss Landing that night — and this file does not fill in those gaps, because there is nothing in the public record to fill them with.
What the record does hold, in the sheriff's office's own words, is the shape of the night. Two boys were found dead at the scene with gunshot wounds. One other person arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound. A fourth person was taken to hospital with injuries that turned out to have nothing to do with the shooting. That distinction matters, and the sheriff's office made it plainly: the fourth person's injuries were unrelated to the shooting incident. Some early reporting described two other people as wounded; the sheriff's office's account is more precise, and this file follows the sheriff's office. The identity of the person who arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound has not been released, and neither has that person's condition. Neither has been stated in any source relied on here, and this file does not guess at either.
The hour matters too. Shortly before 2 a.m. is not an hour when a beach road is busy, and the sources relied on here do not say how many people were on Jetty Road when the shots were fired, or what any of them were doing there. The deputies answered a report of gunshots. What happened in the minutes before that report is the central open fact of this file, and it is still open.
Three days of questions
For three days after the shooting, the investigation moved in public only in the smallest of steps. Detectives were, in the sheriff's office's words, working to establish the circumstances surrounding the shooting and determine the events that led to the deaths of the two victims. A sheriff's spokesperson, Andres Rosas, told the local station KSBW that detectives were continuing to question people considered persons of interest. "At this time, the detectives are speaking to those individuals to try to determine what exactly happened on the morning of Nov. 2," Rosas said. "This is an ongoing active investigation. Our detectives have not stopped working on this case."
That is the full extent of what the authorities said publicly about the investigation between the shooting and the arrest. They did not say what they believed had led to the shooting. They did not say whether the boys and the person who shot them knew each other. They did not say whether anyone else was being sought. The case, as it stood on Wednesday 4 November, was two dead boys, one person in hospital with a gunshot wound, and an investigation that had not yet produced a name.
It is worth saying plainly what that silence does not mean. It does not mean the investigation was standing still. It means the sheriff's office was not describing it in public, and this file does not mistake the absence of public statements for the absence of work. The arrest that followed, three days after the shooting, came after search warrants in two cities and the detention of three people, and the sheriff's office credited members of the community who came forward with information. The work was happening. It was simply not being narrated.
Two warrants, one arrest
On Thursday 5 November 2026, Monterey County sheriff's detectives, assisted by the sheriff's office SWAT team, the Monterey Peninsula Special Response Unit and California State Parks, served two search warrants. The first was served at about 3 p.m. at a home in the 900 block of Maple Avenue in Greenfield, a city about 40 miles southeast of Moss Landing. Three people were detained at that address. No one was arrested there at the time. The second warrant was served at about 6 p.m. at a home in the 45000 block of Crown Avenue in King City.
As a result of the investigation and the search warrants, detectives arrested Donald William Breeden, 18, of Greenfield, on two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements. He was booked into the Monterey County Jail with bail set at $2,035,000. The sheriff's office has not said whether Breeden was among the three people detained at the Greenfield address, and the sources relied on here do not say what, if anything, the warrants recovered. This file records both of those gaps as gaps, because they are the two facts that would connect the warrants to the arrest, and neither has been stated.
The sheriff's office announced the arrest on Friday 6 November 2026, in a news release posted at 2 p.m. Sheriff Tina M. Nieto thanked the members of the community who came forward with information that helped detectives reach that point in the investigation, and said the detectives had been working tirelessly to determine what led to the deaths of the two boys. "While an arrest has been made, our work is not over," she said. "We continue to ask the public for their assistance as we seek justice for Nathaniel and Marco Antonio and their families."
The charge Breeden faces is two counts of murder, with criminal street gang enhancements. The enhancements are part of the charge as the sheriff's office stated it, and this file states them as part of the charge. What the file does not do is explain them, because no authority has explained them in public. No gang has been named. No basis for the enhancements has been disclosed. No motive has been stated. The charge is an allegation, and Breeden is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law, and that presumption governs everything written here about him.
What is still open
The most immediate open fact is what happened on Jetty Road in the minutes before the gunfire was reported. The sheriff's office has said that detectives continue to work to establish the circumstances surrounding the shooting and determine the events that led to the deaths of the two victims. Until the office says more, or a court hears the evidence, the sequence of that night is not settled in this file.
The second open fact is the motive. No authority has stated one, and the sources relied on here do not offer one. The gang enhancements attached to the charge are not a motive, and this file does not treat them as one, because no authority has said what they rest on. A charge enhancement is a legal allegation. It is not an account of why two boys were shot.
The third open fact is the relationship, if any, between Breeden and the two boys. The authorities have released few details about the circumstances surrounding the gunfire, including what may have led to the shooting or the relationship, if any, between Breeden and the victims. That sentence, from the reporting of the arrest, is the whole of what the public record holds on the question, and this file leaves it there.
The fourth open fact is the person who arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound. That person was hurt in the shooting, and the public record does not name them or say how they are. The fourth person, whose injuries were determined to be unrelated to the shooting, is a separate matter, and the sheriff's office's distinction between the two is part of the record this file keeps.
The fifth open fact is the court process. As of the sources relied on here, no plea has been reported, no attorney has been named, no arraignment detail has been confirmed, and no trial date has been set. Breeden is in the Monterey County Jail, charged with two counts of murder, and presumed innocent. That presumption is not a formality in this file: it is the rule that governs everything written here about him, and it will govern the file until a court decides otherwise.
And there is a sixth fact, quieter than the others, that this file records because it is the one the families will live with. Two boys from Salinas, 13 and 15, went to a beach road in the middle of the night and did not come home. A sheriff stood before the public four days later and named them, and thanked the people who had come forward, and said the work was not over. The case that now bears their names is still at its beginning: one charged, a motive unstated, a relationship unconfirmed, and a courtroom that has not yet heard any of it.
TIMELINE
- Monday 2 November 2026, shortly before 2:00 a.m.: Reports of gunshots along Jetty Road, Moss Landing. Monterey County sheriff's deputies, California State Parks personnel and California Highway Patrol officers respond. Two people are found dead at the scene. A third person later arrives at a local hospital with a gunshot wound. A fourth person is taken from the scene to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, later determined to be unrelated to the shooting. Moss Landing State Beach is closed during the initial investigation. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full); USA Today, 6 November 2026 (read in full).
- Tuesday 3 November 2026: The sheriff's office identifies the two boys who died as Marco Antonio Perez, 15, and Nathaniel Flores, 13, both residents of Salinas. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full); The Salinas Californian, 6 November 2026 (search results); Lookout Santa Cruz, 6 November 2026 (search results).
- Wednesday 4 November – Thursday 5 November 2026: Detectives question people considered persons of interest. Sheriff's spokesperson Andres Rosas tells KSBW that detectives are speaking to those individuals to try to determine what happened on the morning of 2 November, and that the investigation is ongoing and active. No motive is disclosed. — KSBW, via the New York Post, 6 November 2026 (search results).
- Thursday 5 November 2026, about 3:00 p.m.: Detectives serve a search warrant at a home in the 900 block of Maple Avenue in Greenfield. Three people are detained. No one is arrested at the time. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full).
- Thursday 5 November 2026, about 6:00 p.m.: Detectives serve a second search warrant at a home in the 45000 block of Crown Avenue in King City. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full).
- Thursday 5 November 2026 (arrest): Following the investigation and the search warrants, detectives arrest Donald William Breeden, 18, of Greenfield, on two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements. He is booked into the Monterey County Jail with bail set at $2,035,000. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full); USA Today, 6 November 2026 (read in full). The New York Post, 6 November 2026, reports the booking as taking place on Friday 6 November.
- Friday 6 November 2026, 2:00 p.m.: The Monterey County Sheriff's Office announces the arrest in a news release. Sheriff Tina M. Nieto thanks community members who came forward with information and states: "While an arrest has been made, our work is not over." — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full).
- As of Monday 9 November 2026: No plea, attorney, arraignment detail or trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here. The investigation remains active and ongoing. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026; USA Today, 6 November 2026.
EVIDENCE & LEADS
- The shooting (Monday 2 November 2026, shortly before 2 a.m.): Gunshots were reported along Jetty Road, Moss Landing. Monterey County sheriff's deputies, California State Parks personnel and California Highway Patrol officers responded. Two people were found dead at the scene. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full); USA Today, 6 November 2026 (read in full).
- The two boys who died: Marco Antonio Perez, 15, and Nathaniel Flores, 13, both residents of Salinas, were found with gunshot wounds and died at the scene. They were identified by the sheriff's office on Tuesday 3 November 2026. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full); USA Today, 6 November 2026 (read in full); The Salinas Californian, 6 November 2026 (search results).
- The other two people at the scene: A third person later arrived at a local hospital with a gunshot wound. A fourth person was taken from the scene to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries that were subsequently determined to be unrelated to the shooting incident. The identity and condition of the person with the gunshot wound have not been released. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full). Note: some early reporting described two other people as wounded; this file follows the sheriff's office's more precise account, which separates the gunshot-wound hospital arrival from the unrelated injuries.
- The three days of questioning: Detectives questioned people considered persons of interest. Sheriff's spokesperson Andres Rosas told KSBW that detectives were speaking to those individuals to determine what happened on the morning of 2 November, and that the investigation was ongoing and active. — KSBW, via the New York Post, 6 November 2026 (search results).
- The two search warrants (Thursday 5 November 2026): The first, at about 3 p.m. in the 900 block of Maple Avenue, Greenfield — three people detained, none arrested at the time. The second, at about 6 p.m. in the 45000 block of Crown Avenue, King City. The warrants were served by sheriff's detectives assisted by the sheriff's office SWAT team, the Monterey Peninsula Special Response Unit and California State Parks. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full).
- The arrest and the charge: Donald William Breeden, 18, of Greenfield, was arrested on Thursday 5 November 2026 on two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements, and was booked into the Monterey County Jail with bail set at $2,035,000. The sheriff's office announced the arrest on Friday 6 November 2026. — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full); USA Today, 6 November 2026 (read in full); The Salinas Californian, 6 November 2026 (search results).
- The sheriff's statement: Sheriff Tina M. Nieto thanked community members who came forward with information, said detectives had been working tirelessly to determine what led to the deaths of the two boys, and said: "While an arrest has been made, our work is not over." — Monterey County Sheriff's Office news release, 6 November 2026 (read in full).
- Presumption of innocence: Donald William Breeden is charged, not convicted. The charge against him is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. No other person is named as a suspect or charged in any source relied on here.
- What is NOT evidence in this file: any account of a motive (none stated by any authority — the gang enhancements are a charging allegation, not a motive); any account of a relationship between Breeden and the two boys (none stated — the authorities have released few details, including on this question); any account of the basis of the gang enhancements or of any gang (none named or explained); any account of whether Breeden was among the three people detained in Greenfield (not stated); any account of what, if anything, the search warrants recovered (not disclosed); any account of the identity or condition of the person who arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound (not released); any account of a plea, attorney, arraignment or trial date (none publicly reported); any "mass shooter" label (the New York Post's headline wording, not used by the sheriff's office — NOT in this file); any claim from social-media comments about any person's guilt, innocence, or past (NOT used — see the fact log).
Caption: Illustration of a foggy California coastal beach at dawn — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of any place connected to this case, and not evidence.
STILL UNKNOWN
- What happened on Jetty Road before the gunfire? The sheriff's office has said detectives continue to work to establish the circumstances surrounding the shooting and determine the events that led to the deaths of the two victims. What happened in the minutes before the gunfire was reported has not been publicly explained.
- What was the motive? No authority has stated a motive. The criminal street gang enhancements attached to the charge are a charging allegation, not a motive, and no authority has explained what they rest on.
- What relationship, if any, was there between Breeden and the two boys? The authorities have released few details about the circumstances surrounding the gunfire, including what may have led to the shooting or the relationship, if any, between Breeden and the victims.
- What is the basis of the gang enhancements? No gang has been named and no basis for the enhancements has been disclosed in any source relied on here.
- Was Breeden among the three people detained in Greenfield? The sheriff's office has not said whether he was, and the sources relied on here do not say what, if anything, the search warrants recovered.
- Who is the person who arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound, and how are they? The identity and condition of that person have not been released in any source relied on here.
- What happens next in court? No plea, attorney, arraignment detail or trial date has been publicly reported in the sources relied on here. Breeden is charged with two counts of murder and is presumed innocent.
- What will the trial show? Breeden is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent. The evidence will be tested in court, and this file will follow it.
What would change this file: if the investigators say what happened on Jetty Road before the gunfire, or state a motive; if the relationship, if any, between Breeden and the two boys is explained; if the basis of the gang enhancements is disclosed; if the person who arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound is identified, or their condition is released; if Breeden enters a plea, or if a trial date is set; or if any further official statement is made about the case, this file will be updated with the date, the source, and the new stamp if the facts require it — never quietly rewritten. Until then, the stamp stays CHARGED.
If you have information: The Monterey County Sheriff's Office is investigating the shooting on Jetty Road, Moss Landing. If you know anything about this case, contact Detective Sergeant N. Kennedy at 831-755-3773 or Detective R. Geng at 831-759-7279. Do not share speculation about the case on social media while it is active.
WATCH THE FULL STORY
No companion video yet. If Dark History Files' sister channel Curiozoid publishes a video on this case, it will be linked here.
SOURCES
- Monterey County Sheriff's Office — news release, Friday 6 November 2026, 2:00 p.m., "MCSO Serves Two Warrants in Moss Landing Shooting Investigation Resulting In Arrest For Murder and Gang Enhancements" (County of Monterey, https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/Home/Components/News/News/12542/18?widgetId=41, read in full, 9 November 2026): the shooting occurred on Monday 2 November 2026, just before 2:00 a.m., when sheriff's deputies, California State Parks personnel and California Highway Patrol officers responded to reports of gunshots along Jetty Road in Moss Landing; deputies located two individuals who were pronounced deceased at the scene; a third individual arrived at a local hospital with a gunshot wound; a fourth individual was transported from the scene to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries subsequently determined to be unrelated to the shooting; the two deceased victims were identified as 13-year-old Nathaniel Flores and 15-year-old Marco Antonio Perez, both residents of Salinas; on Thursday 5 November 2026, detectives assisted by the sheriff's office SWAT team, the Monterey Peninsula Special Response Unit and California State Parks executed two search warrants — the first at about 3 p.m. in the 900 block of Maple Avenue in Greenfield, where three individuals were detained, and the second at about 6 p.m. in the 45000 block of Crown Avenue in King City; as a result, detectives arrested 18-year-old Donald William Breeden of Greenfield on two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements, and he was booked into the Monterey County Jail with bail set at $2,035,000; Sheriff Tina M. Nieto stated, "We want to thank the members of our community who came forward with information that helped our detectives reach this point in the investigation. Our detectives have been working tirelessly to determine what led to the tragic deaths of these two young victims. While an arrest has been made, our work is not over. We continue to ask the public for their assistance as we seek justice for Nathaniel and Marco Antonio and their families."; the investigation remains active and ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant N. Kennedy at 831-755-3773 or Detective R. Geng at 831-759-7279.
- USA Today, 6 November 2026 — "18-year-old arrested in Monterey County beach shooting that killed two" (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/state/california/2026/11/06/california-beach-fatal-shooting-arrest-moss-landing/92650448007/, read in full, 9 November 2026): Donald William Breeden of Greenfield was arrested following an investigation into the 2 November shooting near Moss Landing State Beach; the victims, Nathaniel Flores, 13, and Marco Antonio Perez, 15, both of Salinas, were found suffering from gunshot wounds after deputies responded shortly after midnight to reports of a shooting along Jetty Road, and both died at the scene; two other people also suffered gunshot wounds, one taken from the scene to a hospital and another later arriving at a hospital — note: this file follows the sheriff's office's more precise account, which separates the third person's gunshot wound from the fourth person's unrelated injuries; investigators have not publicly detailed what they believe led to the shooting; sheriff's detectives and California State Parks rangers served two search warrants on Thursday 5 November, one at a home in Greenfield, about 40 miles southeast of Moss Landing, where they detained three people, and one in King City; detectives identified Breeden as a suspect and arrested him on homicide and gang-related charges, and he was booked into jail with bail set at $2.035 million; authorities did not immediately make clear whether Breeden was among the three people initially detained at the Greenfield residence; Moss Landing is an unincorporated coastal community on Monterey Bay, roughly halfway between Santa Cruz and Monterey; authorities have released few details about the circumstances surrounding the gunfire, including what may have led to the shooting or the relationship, if any, between Breeden and the victims.
- New York Post, 6 November 2026 — "Suspected mass shooter charged with double murder in slayings of teen boys on California beach" (https://nypost.com/2026/11/06/us-news/teen-charged-in-moss-landing-state-beach-double-murder/, read via search results, 9 November 2026): Breeden was booked into the Monterey County Jail on Friday, suspected of gunning down Perez and Flores early Monday morning near Jetty Road in Moss Landing; the murder counts came with criminal street gang enhancements and bail was set at $2.035 million; the two victims, both from Salinas, were killed shortly before 2 a.m. Monday; the arrest came after an investigation that included a search of a Greenfield home on Thursday; sheriff's spokesperson Andres Rosas told KSBW that detectives were continuing to question people considered persons of interest — "At this time, the detectives are speaking to those individuals to try to determine what exactly happened on the morning of Nov. 2," Rosas said, "This is an ongoing active investigation. Our detectives have not stopped working on this case."; authorities have yet to publicly detail what sparked the deadly gunfire. Note: this file does NOT use the Post's "mass shooter" headline label — the sheriff's office has not used it — and records the booking-day difference (the Post reports the booking as Friday; the sheriff's release, posted Friday 2 p.m., states the arrest followed the Thursday warrants) in the fact log.
- The Salinas Californian, 6 November 2026 — "Arrest made in Moss Landing shooting that killed Salinas teens" (https://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/crime/2026/11/06/arrest-made-after-deadly-moss-landing-state-beach-shooting/92649933007/, read via search results, 9 November 2026): Monterey County sheriff's detectives arrested an 18-year-old Greenfield man in connection with a shooting at Moss Landing State Beach that killed two Salinas teens and injured two other people; deputies responded early Monday 2 November to reports of a shooting along Jetty Road; Nathaniel Flores, 13, and Marco Antonio Perez, 15, died at the scene; on Thursday 5 November, sheriff's detectives and California State Parks rangers served two search warrants — the first at a home in the 900 block of Maple Avenue in Greenfield, where three people were detained, and a second in King City; detectives identified the suspect as Donald William Breeden; he was arrested and booked into jail on homicide and gang-related charges, with bail set at $2,035,000; the investigation remains active and ongoing.
- Lookout Santa Cruz, 6 November 2026 — "Greenfield resident charged with murder in Moss Landing shooting" (https://lookout.co/greenfield-resident-charged-with-murder-in-moss-landing-shooting/story, read via search results, 9 November 2026): the sheriff's office arrested 18-year-old Greenfield resident Donald William Breeden in connection with the fatal shooting of two teens in Moss Landing earlier that week; Breeden is being charged with two counts of murder with criminal street gang enhancements; deputies were called to Jetty Road shortly before 2 a.m. Monday after reports of gunshots; the sheriff's office confirmed on Tuesday that the two people killed were Salinas teenagers Marco Antonio Perez, 15, and Nathaniel Flores, 13.
- Social scan, 9 November 2026: social.search (Instagram/Threads/Facebook, since 7 November 2026, 50 posts) returned the Kylie Arellano rescue as the dominant true-crime story (already published, DHF-042) plus a California Post graphic on the Moss Landing arrest; news-vertical searches returned the Moss Landing arrest across USA Today, the New York Post, the Los Angeles Times, KSBW, KRON, ABC7 and the Salinas Californian on 6–7 November 2026, with the sheriff's office release of 6 November 2026 as the primary source. The trending call for this pick rests on that news record, stated honestly here. No claim in this file rests on a social-media post alone.
- No competitor article text or image is reproduced in this file. Facts are stated in Dark History Files' own words, with official material attributed to its source. No source beyond those listed above was relied on for facts in the draft. No search-volume numbers are stated, because no tool returned any.
Caption: Illustration of a quiet California coastal road at dusk — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of any place connected to this case, and not evidence.
Reader question: Two boys were killed on a beach road before dawn, and four days later one young man was charged — but what happened in between is still unaccounted for. While the courts test the charge, what should the rest of us do with the parts of the story that are still unknown?
RELATED FILES
Previous file: DHF-064 — Brittany Powell: Husband Charged in Texas Killing — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/brittany-powell-quitman-husband-charged-murder.html
Next file: DHF-066 — Maria Spurger: Dallas Investigator Charged in Wife's Killing — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/maria-spurger-dallas-investigator-charged-wifes-killing.html
This file is based on public reporting and official statements available as of 9 November 2026. Read how every file is built on the About page, or request a file via the Contact page.
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