Last arrest made in slaying

Visalia teenager Brandon Flores, 19, was the third and final suspect in the August murder of 16-year-old Daniel Saesee, and now he is in police custody.

Flores was arrested Wed- nesday afternoon by Visalia police after he fled a vehicle that had been stopped for failure to yield, according to Sgt. Bryan Winter.

Initial reports said four males approached Saesee at about 7:45 p.m. Aug. 17 and started a fight with him before he was shot in the chest.

Winter, however, said there were only three suspects and Flores was the third. A 15-year-old was arrested the day of the shooting, and a 17-year-old was arrested Aug. 20.

Police would not release their names because they are juveniles.

Like Flores, the 17-year-old was found hiding in an attic when he was arrested.

The police SWAT team was called and a short stand-off ensued before they brought him out of the house, which was on the 800 block of North Oakwood Court.

Police said in August that Saesee was likely killed because he had ties to the Oriental Troops street gang, though they stated they did not believe he was a member of the gang.

While the boy's parents deny he had any association with gangs, police know that the suspects arrested are in the Norteño street gang, rivals of the Oriental Troops.

"I think [Saesee's murderers] were looking for a gangster and got the wrong guy," said Emma Saesee, Daniel Saesee's mother, in August. "He's not even associated with the gangs."

She learned that her son had been shot minutes after it happened, and ran out of her house and down the street to where Daniel Saesee had collapsed near Houston Avenue. But she couldn't get past police barriers before he was taken to Kaweah Delta Hospital by ambulance, where he died an hour later.

Emma Saesee and her husband, Albung Saesee, both said in August that they never allowed gang members in their house and always warned their children of the dangers of gangs.

They also said that people might believe their son is in the Oriental Troops just because he's Lahu, an ethnic group from Laos.

"Because we're Asian doesnot mean we're in gangs," Emma Saesee said.