SAN JOSE, Calif. — Mixed-martial arts star Cain Velasquez allegedly chased a vehicle carrying a man accused of molesting his underage relative, pursuing him and his parents for about 11 miles before ramming then opening fire on them on a remote road in South San Jose, according to newly filed charging documents accusing Velasquez of attempted murder.
Velasquez, 39, of Gilroy was formally charged with attempted murder and multiple gun assault charges Wednesday, in connection with a roadside encounter Monday in which he allegedly shot and wounded the stepfather of the man authorities say Velasquez was targeting.
Velasquez followed 43-year-old Harry Goularte as he traveled Monday afternoon with his parents in a pickup truck from their San Martin home and through Morgan Hill, according to a criminal complaint and an accompanying San Jose police summary filed Wednesday. At one point, Velasquez shot at Goularte at least once near Butterfield Boulevard and Cochrane Road In Morgan Hill, according to the summary.
A more aggressive chase ensued, and Velasquez, traveling in his own pickup truck, caught up with the family near Monterey Road and Bailey Avenue in South San Jose at about 3:15 p.m., and rammed their vehicle before he fired several shots at them with a .40 caliber pistol, wounding Goularte’s stepfather in the arm and torso, according to authorities.
Police and emergency personnel met the wounded man in the unincorporated area of Coyote between San Jose and Morgan Hill. Velasquez was arrested that afternoon after he was spotted and stopped by Morgan Hill police. San Jose police spearheaded the investigation because the injury occurred in that city.
The attempted murder charge is connected to the allegation that Velasquez targeted Goularte. He has also been charged with shooting at an occupied vehicle, multiple assault counts, and one weapon charge.
Authorities said they recovered a legally owned .40 caliber handgun from Velasquez after his arrest, and determined it was loaded with nine bullets in a 10-round magazine, and a second magazine with three bullets in his vehicle’s console. That suggests he reloaded the gun at some point given that multiple bullet casings were recovered at the primary shooting site, as well as in Velasquez’s truck, and one was found embedded in the shooting victim’s vehicle, police wrote.
Before he was booked, authorities say he was served with a gun-violence restraining order, which requires him to surrender any firearms he owns for at least three weeks pending a court hearing.
Velasquez is scheduled to be arraigned in a San Jose courtroom Wednesday afternoon. Besides answering to the attempted murder charge, it is expected that his attorney will argue that he be granted bail; following his arrest, he was booked and not allowed bail.
Given that Velasquez has no serious criminal history in the county, based on past court practice, there’s a chance that a judge could grant bail in the case, and possibly combine it with some form of supervision or monitoring, plus a stay-away order from the wounded man and his family. But the nature of the allegations make it just as likely that he could be remanded to jail to prevent any additional confrontations that could become violent.
Court records and sources with close knowledge of the case say the events that led up to the shooting began last week after Velasquez’s relative told authorities that he was repeatedly molested by a man at a home daycare in San Martin. This news organization is withholding the child’s name and exact relationship to Velasquez because the child is a minor and reported sexual abuse victim.
Goularte lives at the home that hosts a daycare business run by his mother, according to a criminal complaint that charged Goularte with a felony count of a lewd and lascivious act with a child under the age of 14. More than 20 children attend the daycare center. The owner has temporarily shut down the center while the investigation of that case is under way.
Goularte was arraigned Friday, and a judge granted him supervised release, over objections from the District Attorney’s Office.
Three days later Goularte was on his way to get a court-ordered monitoring device when Velasquez allegedly attack him and his family.
Since Velasquez’s arrest, a massive outpouring of support from mixed-martial arts fighters and celebrities, as well as fans, galvanized on social media, especially after the back story of his connection to the shooting victim surfaced publicly in news reports Tuesday.
Velasquez, who retired from MMA in 2019, is a former two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship title belt holder in the heavyweight division, having earned title belts in 2010 and 2012, and becoming the first fighter of Mexican descent to accomplish that feat. He won a junior college national wrestling title in Arizona and was a two-time All-American at Arizona State University before he pivoted to mixed-martial arts.
He has lived in South County for several years and has long been associated with the American Kickboxing Academy in South San Jose, which is where he trained as he gained prominence in the fight world, and was among several high-profile fighters who gave the gym an international profile over the past decade.
Velasquez carried a career record of 14-3, though injuries slowed the latter portion of his career, and he lost his last bout in 2019. Recently he had ventured into professional wrestling, and was still working as a coach at AKA at the time of his arrest.
