A renewed investigation into the 2022 shooting death of a Visalia bicyclist has led to an arrest, according to the Visalia Police Department. Detectives took 51-year-old Michael Ruiz into custody Wednesday at Corcoran State Prison, where he was being released in a separate, unrelated case.
Ruiz faces a murder charge in the death of James Martin Fernandez, 57, who was shot in March 2022. Following his arrest at the prison, Ruiz was booked into the Bob Wiley Detention Facility. Police said Ruiz and Fernandez knew each other as acquaintances, but the motive for the shooting remains unclear.
The arrest followed a fresh examination of the unresolved case earlier this year. Visalia police spokesperson Liz Jones said detectives reopened the investigation in March 2026 and reviewed evidence. She said that renewed investigative work led them to identify Ruiz as the suspect in Fernandez's shooting.
Fernandez was traveling by bicycle on West Cambridge Avenue in Visalia when he was shot. He was taken to Kaweah Health Medical Center for treatment and later died from his injuries. In interviews after the shooting in 2022, people in the neighborhood recalled trying to comfort him following the attack.
One neighbor, identified as Tanya, described kneeling beside Fernandez and holding his legs while praying for him. "It was pretty bad and I didn't want him to feel alone," she said in an interview after the shooting. Her account described the efforts neighbors made to offer comfort while Fernandez was injured.
Residents said they still remembered praying for Fernandez and expressed relief upon learning that police had made an arrest. The shooting remained part of their memories of the neighborhood more than four years later. Neighbors told Action News they hoped the development would bring closure to Fernandez's family.
Jones said the arrest demonstrated detectives' continued commitment to cases that remain unresolved. She described investigators as continuing to seek answers for victims and their families even when years have passed since a crime. "Our detectives don't give up even when a case goes cold," she said.
While the renewed investigation has resulted in a murder charge, police have not established a clear motive for the shooting. The relationship they described between Ruiz and Fernandez was that of acquaintances.
