Gilbert must fire its police chief over 'Gilbert Goons' response

Gilbert has had ample opportunities to rise to the moment in the many months since the “Gilbert Goons” began terrorizing the town and surrounding communities.

Yet no one has stepped up.

Not the mayor and Gilbert Town Council. Not the town manager. Not the area schools where suspected Goon members attend.

And especially not Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg.

Gilbert should remove Chief Soelberg

Soelberg’s misreading and mishandling of the Goons’ unchecked thuggery has destroyed trust in the police department and the town officials who help hold him accountable.

While progress is finally being made on investigations, neither Soelberg nor the mayor and Town Council offer confidence that they are capable of stopping the mayhem and fear the Goons have created.

Is it any wonder why many in Gilbert are calling for the police chief and the mayor to step down?

We share in their frustration, anger and puzzlement.

It is time for Town Manager Patrick Banger to remove Chief Soelberg, should he not resign.

Mounting evidence shows Soelberg is not up to the job.

Officers missed ample warning signs

In December 2022, a gang of roughly a dozen teens surprised a 16-year-old in the parking lot of an In-N-Out Burger, and one of them badly beat the teen with brass knuckles.

The suspect arrested in the beating had two weeks earlier seriously hurt another teen, also with brass knuckles, and told authorities of his penchant of “leaving the home with the plan to assault people for no reason.”

Authorities noted that he was known to “commit unprovoked (attacks) with his peers.”

Gilbert police did not appreciate the problem they had on their hands.

Throughout 2023, especially toward the tail end of the year, teens in Gilbert suffered threats, intimidation and blitz-style attacks at house parties and public spaces at the hands of a group calling themselves the Gilbert Goons, or Goonies.

At least four of the attacks occurred at In-N-Out Burger on Market Street, across the street from the busy SanTan Village shopping mall. One of them involved Richard Kuehner’s 16-year-old son, who was similarly confronted on Aug. 18 by a large group and bloodied in the attack.

Police calls to the location more than doubled from 2021 to 2023, a disturbing development that the department should have caught during regular CompStat meetings, where police monitor data to identify and address crime trends.

Yet while officers did increase patrols of the area, the uptick still didn’t set off the proper alarm bells.

Residents investigated 'Gilbert Goons'

Instead, it was the fatal beating of 16-year-old Preston Lord at a Halloween party in nearby Queen Creek that got victims, parents and community organizers buzzing.

A Facebook page for Lily Waterfield, a largely dormant page until it adopted a #Justice4Preston mission weeks after the killing, became a cyber town square for information, rumors and theories about the homicide and other attacks in the East Valley.

The page has been relentless in calling out the Goons, even if some of the assertions are with little or no foundation.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t until an investigative story by The Arizona Republic’s Robert Anglen and Elena Santa Cruz published in mid-December that Gilbert Police stepped up their efforts.

Within days, the department reactivated four cases involving the Goons and opened five others.

Kuehner, who sent his son overseas to live with the boy’s mother, said he received a call from a Gilbert police lieutenant after the story published and was bewildered it took that length to secure a follow-through on the case.

We are, too.

Especially given that a number of the attacks had been videotaped by the Goons or their associates, and posted on Snapchat and other social media accounts.

Soelberg still won't say their name

It’s equally odd that the department has avoided naming the Gilbert Goons.

Chief Soelberg did not address the media until mid-January. When he did, he described the cases as teen violence, despite the overwhelming majority of cases involving suspected Goons.

And despite Soelberg saying he wants the public, including victims of the Goons who have been scared into silence, to reach out to police.

After all, general teen violence does not adequately describe the blitz-style attacks on mostly random victims. Or intimidation of them via text or social media platforms.

Police and schools: Have failed us on 'Gilbert Goons'

Or, in at least two Goons cases documented by court records, members of the gang showing up to a teen victim’s home wearing ski masks to harass or beat up people.

A menace to the community needs to be called out by its name.

Police trust is lost, so chief must go

Given plenty of opportunities to be upfront about his department’s failure to act quickly and decisively, the police chief repeated his lament that victims did not report attacks earlier or failed to mention the Goons connection by name.

He further inflamed residents by chastising people for peddling rumors and hearsay on the Lily Waterfield page and other social media accounts, announcing police investigations into doxxing — the posting of personal information — over the Goons discussion.

Does he not realize that was the community’s direct response to the department’s silence on the matter?

Soelberg isn’t the only party who performed his job poorly.

There’s blame all around, from Mayor Brigette Peterson and the six members of the Town Council to Town Manager Patrick Banger, all of whom failed to exercise leadership that befits a booming community nearing 300,000 residents.

A community whose concerns and demands for answers on the Goons went unanswered for months.

Peterson realized, if late, that Gilbert residents have lost faith in her and announced she would not seek reelection.

Now she and Banger can begin to rebuild confidence by removing Chief Soelberg.

Because the police department has lost the trust of the community, for which Soelberg is responsible.

A loss that cannot be regained.

The time to act has come.

This is an opinion of The Arizona Republic's editorial board.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Gilbert Goons' response is unacceptable. Fire the police chief now