Three young lives were cut short last week in South San Jose, gunned down by someone they knew.
The victims were not immediately identified when the suspect was arrested on Sept. 17, the day after the triple murder. On Sept. 19, court documents identified the victims as Tarrah Lynn Taylor, Jeannessa Lurie and Max Chavez Ryan, all in their 20s, all from San Jose.
Authorities and family as of Monday provided no information, except age, residence, date of deaths, and cause of death. Additional information about the victims has come from friends, employers and social media.
Taylor, 26, Lurie, 24, and Ryan, 26, were killed by multiple gunshots shortly after midnight on Sept. 16.
Taylor, who police said was the primary target of the attacker, filled her social media posts with photos of herself with friends, dogs and cats.
She reposted content about National Parks and pro-environment causes. She had attended Foothill College.
Ryan had worked as an outreach worker with the San Jose Housing Department since February, assisting homeless people moving from Columbus Park campsites to more temporary housing.
He is survived by his parents, Joe and Carla Ryan, and two younger brothers.
Ryan graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2022 and in addition to his work helping the homeless, was a writer, musician and painter.
“He had helped hundreds of people move from the Columbus Park homeless encampment,” the housing department said in a statement. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to his friends, colleagues, and loved ones. Max served his community on our Homelessness Response Outreach Team. His commitment to the people of San José, and in particular the most vulnerable among us, exemplified the thoughtful, caring human he was. He will be remembered not only for his professional contributions, but also for his kindness, compassion, and spirit.”
Lurie, a graduate of Mid-Peninsula High School in Menlo Park who attended CSU Monterey Bay, was pursuing a career in animal behavior science. Lurie had begun work as a security dog trainer for Bite Club K9 in Monterey. In addition to her work as a dog trainer, she worked part-time at BluePearl Pet Hospital in Monterey.
She lived in San Jose at the house near Martial Cottle Park where the fatal attack occurred.
The three victims were reportedly at the house when Taylor was strangled and beaten by her ex-boyfriend last Sunday and again on Monday. The 24-year-old reported the attacks to San Jose police, which detectives said prompted an alleged return by the killer to silence Taylor and her friends.
Authorities said police were searching for the ex-boyfriend when the fatal attack occurred.
Shortly after midnight the next day, Sept. 17, police said in court documents filed Sept. 19, that Taylor’s 27-year-old ex-boyfriend, Joseph Vicencio, returned to the apartment and shot Taylor, Lurie and Ryan, then fled into the night.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen presented the charges against Vicencio at his Sept. 19 arraignment in Santa Clara County Superior Court: three counts of murder and three related felony weapons crimes.
The suspect remains in the Santa Clara County Main Jail, without bail. He is to return to court Oct. 24.
The weekend attacks on Taylor weren’t the only time Vicencio had appeared on the radar of San Jose detectives.
The district attorney’s frustration with one particular incident during his tenure as the county’s top prosecutor—when Vicencio was convicted in 2020 of 11 felony counts, based on a September 2019 incident in which he emptied an automatic pistol into the front window of the Martin Luther King Jr. library and never served time in prison—figured in Vicencio’s arraignment.
“We charged him with 11 felony counts and asked for him to be sent to prison for nine years. We recognized that he was a dangerous person,” Rosen told reporters. “The judge granted probation in that case over our extremely strong objection.”
The judge in 2020 placed Vicencio in mandatory confinement for mental health treatment, under the supervision of Santa Clara County’s Mental Health Treatment Court. He was later able to get the conviction completely expunged from his record.
Though his record was expunged, Vicencio was still legally prohibited from owning a firearm. Investigators reported they are still working to determine the origin of the suspected weapon, which police have declined to identify.
“Gun violence is a huge scourge in our community and our state and in our country. Just a few days ago, we put out a public service announcement about gun violence restraining orders, red flag laws,” Rosen told reporters. “We use these restraining orders more than any other county in the Bay Area, by far, and they save lives. We did not have an opportunity to get such a gun violence restraining order in this case.”
Vicente Vera contributed to this report.
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