SAN FRANCISCO -- The preliminary court hearing for an East Bay man accused in the fatal shootings last year of three members of a San Francisco family in the city's Excelsior District got underway Monday with testimony about the man's alleged gang associations.

Edwin Ramos, a 22-year-old suspected member of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang, is being held without bail for the fatal shootings of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, on June 22, 2008.

Police have said the family may have been mistaken for rival gang members.

Ramos was arrested at his home on Hilltop Drive in El Sobrante three days later. The suspect vehicle, a Chrysler 300M that belonged to Ramos and his wife, was also found at the home, according to police.

Prosecutors have charged Ramos with three counts of murder and special allegations involving gang membership, firearm use and multiple murders. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

An initial request this morning by Ramos' attorney Marla Zamora to have the preliminary hearing closed to the public was denied.

"Mr. Ramos is very concerned about his wife and his small child at home," said Zamora. She argued that information that may be disclosed during the hearing would pose a danger "not only to his life, but the lives of his family."

Judge Teri Jackson refused the motion to seal the hearing, though she indicated she might consider at a later time sealing specific evidence.

Homicide Inspector John Cagney testified today that during an interview with the 14-year-old sister of Ramos' wife at the home on the night of Ramos' arrest, the girl agreed that both her brother and Ramos were MS-13 members.

According to Cagney, after first claiming she was unsure, when asked again if they belonged to MS-13, the girl admitted, "Uh-huh."

The girl said the pair had been in MS-13 "a long time," Cagney said, but did not operate in the Richmond area because they didn't get along with the gangs there.

When asked if they were active in San Francisco, the girl responded, "I guess," Cagney said.

Earlier testimony Monday focused on past incidents that involved Ramos, including the Oct. 22, 2003, assault of a man on a San Francisco Municipal Railway bus.

San Francisco police Officer Lynn Reilly testified the victim told her he was on the bus that afternoon at 21st and Mission streets when three men wearing blue and white clothing banged on the window and asked him what gang he was in.

He denied being in a gang, but the three men rushed in and attacked him, Reilly said.

The man told Reilly he was punched and kicked by at least two of the men, and possibly Ramos, but he couldn't see Ramos' face because he was protecting himself. Ramos, who was arrested along with the other two men in their 20s, was 17 years old at the time.

Ramos was again arrested on March 30, 2008, after police in the Tenderloin district stopped a white Mitsubishi he was driving because it had no front license plate and its front windows were tinted, and ended up discovering a passenger had a loaded handgun.

Ramos stopped the car and was cooperative with police, but a second man wearing gang colors fled the vehicle, Officer Rodrigo Labson testified. He was arrested blocks away after trying to hide the handgun in a sewer grating.

Inspector Scott Lau of the department's gang task force testified today that MS-13 is a subcategory of Surenos, who are known for wearing blue, as opposed to their rival Nortenos, who wear red. He admitted, however, that he had seen known Surenos wearing red.

San Francisco police Inspector Raymond Gee, a member of the department's crime scene investigations unit, testified this morning that when he arrived at the scene of the June 22, 2008, triple homicide, he found two of the shooting victims in the front seats of a blue Honda Civic that had collided with two parked vehicles. The third victim had already been taken to the hospital.

The three were shot inside their car just after 3 p.m. in the 200 block of Congdon Street, between Ney and Maynard streets, according to police. Matthew Bologna was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital, but was removed from life support two days later.

Both the driver's side and rear left passenger seat windows of the Civic were shattered, Gee said. Broken glass was found further up the street, where the car had apparently begun rolling backwards before crashing into the parked cars.

Ramos' preliminary hearing in San Francisco Superior Court is scheduled to last at least a week, after which the judge will determine if there is probable cause to hold Ramos for trial on the charges.