Someone out there knows who is responsible for a violent night in the Fruitvale last summer that claimed one life, wrecked two others and caused immeasurable collateral damage.

Someone knows who snuffed out 36-year-old Adrienne Parker's life while she sat in her parked car early one August morning. She'd been planning to move to Southern California. But Parker didn't leave soon enough.

These are the same four suspects who police say slashed another man in the neck while attempting to rob him near a taco truck at 44th Avenue and International Boulevard. Then, they shot Salvador Recinos Mendez, 38, who came to the victim's rescue and followed the suspects so he could tell police of their whereabouts.

Two months later, Mendez, a hardworking father of two young girls, remains hospitalized. He hasn't been able to walk since the attack. He lives in excruciating pain, struggling to heal his broken body. Home is a crowded room at a rehabilitation hospital.

I know someone out there knows who committed these sick acts because the people who tend to do things like this often can't resist the urge to brag about it. To girlfriends. To the fellas.

They think that cavalierly harming or killing someone else gives them gangsta cred.

Their savage acts make headlines, which then quickly are replaced by new headlines about the latest stabbings and shootings in a never-ending cycle of senseless destruction.

We feel empathy for the victims, yet we soon forget them. The brain can only process so much horrible news before it eventually shuts it out.

Mendez and Parker would have joined the annals of the long forgotten.

Tribune staff writers Kristin Bender and Harry Harris, however, decided to go back and revisit their story: tinyurl.com/yjaxgj3.

Bender and Harris produced a poignant account of the devastation wrought by the four, still-at-large suspects.

Mendez tried to do the right thing and has paid a terrible price.

Before Mendez was shot, he was working as a janitor cleaning office buildings. The Salvadoran immigrant didn't have much, but he was willing to work hard to make a better life for his family. He didn't try to take the easy way out like his attackers — stabbing or shooting others to take what they have.

Mendez didn't deserve this.

I hope that whoever knows who attacked Mendez and killed Parker reads Bender and Harris' story.

Then ask yourself: How would you feel if Mendez were your son or brother? Parker your child or sister?

Wouldn't you want justice for your loved ones?

As of this writing, the police had no fresh leads and no suspects.

If we are ever to hold those accountable who committed these terrible acts, the community must say, "Enough."

It is time to stop shielding those who sow terror on our streets.

We all say we care about public safety. We wring our hands about runaway violent crime. We whine about too few cops.

If we want to put an end to this madness, we have to step up.

Oakland has a new top cop. Chief Anthony Batts, who was sworn in last week, built an impressive record fighting violent crime as the Long Beach police chief.

But as Batts recently told a group of Oakland residents, the Police Department cannot by itself alter Oakland's dubious distinction as the most dangerous large city in California.

"The Wild West was not won by a guy riding in on a white horse," Batts said. "It was won by communities that took a stand."

That means outing those who terrorize our streets.

If you have any information about the four suspects, call the police at 510-238-3821 or Crime Stoppers, which has offered a reward of as much as $25,000, at 510-277-8572 or 510-777-3211.

You don't have to leave your name, just the information to help put these people behind bars where they belong.

Tammerlin Drummond is a columnist for the Bay Area News Group. Reach her at tdrummond@bayareanewsgroup.com or on Twitter@Tammerlin.