Fresno Police Chief Launches Violent Crime Suppression Operation After Recent Stabbings

Two stabbings on a single Thursday night, one at River Park shopping center and one at the Fulton Street Hop in downtown Fresno, pushed Chief Mindy Casto to launch a citywide Violent Crime Suppression Operation that was already underway before she formally announced it at a Monday press conference at police headquarters.

Six suspects are now in custody. Two were arrested the night of the River Park stabbing. Four others, ages 17 and 18, were taken into custody over the weekend in connection with the Fulton Street Hop attack.

The operation runs day and night across the city with no defined end date. Its timing carries added weight: the Fresno Grizzlies' 25th annual home opener at Chukchansi Park is expected to draw close to 6,000 fans into downtown Fresno, placing the city center under heightened scrutiny just as the suppression effort ramps up.

Casto, the department's 24th chief and the first woman ever to hold the position, cited a recent uptick in murders and shootings as the driving force behind the operation, even as Fresno's longer-term crime trajectory runs sharply in the other direction. Homicides in the city dropped from 74 in both 2020 and 2021 to just 30 in 2024. The department's partnership with the Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium has produced an 85% reduction in gang-related shootings since 2020, and officers recovered more than 1,500 firearms off city streets in a recent 12-month period.

A Fresno County native with nearly three decades in law enforcement, Casto was elevated from interim to permanent chief earlier this year. Alongside the suppression operation, she announced a renewed departmental emphasis on community involvement. A separate organized retail theft grant has allowed 26 FPD personnel to be reassigned to property crimes, including auto theft.

The recent stabbings represent an acute interruption of that progress. Whether the suppression operation holds the line through a packed Grizzlies homestand and beyond will be the first real test of Casto's permanent tenure.