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East Palo Alto police are investigating the city’s first homicide case of the year: A Sept. 7 shooting that injured a man who died two days later, police said this week.
The shooting near East Bayshore Road and Pulgas Avenue took place around 8:35 p.m. when the man was allegedly involved in an “illegal transaction” that led to a dispute, which ended when someone shot him, Police Chief Al Pardini wrote in a community update released Wednesday.
The man, identified by the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office as 24-year-old Victor Eduardo Gomez Rios of Menlo Park, was transported to a hospital for life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead two days later.
Detectives are investigating the fatal shooting and haven’t released a physical description of the alleged shooter, who hadn’t been arrested as of Thursday morning, police Cmdr. Jeff Liu said. The shooting doesn’t appear to be “a random act of violence.”
“We don’t believe there’s any threat to the general public from this person,” Liu said.
The city’s last homicide occurred on Dec. 13, 2018, when a man was fatally shot in the 1200 block of Beech Street just blocks away from Martin Luther King Park. It was one of three homicides in 2018. The two others occurred on Oct. 14, when two people were shot and killed during a Halloween party at the rear of a towing business at Pulgas Avenue and Bay Road. No arrests have been announced in any of the three cases.
East Palo Alto police are also investigating a Sept. 14 shooting in which a 42-year-old was shot in the head by his 26-year-old son in a possible case of mistaken identity. The father was transported to a hospital in stable condition and the son was charged by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office on Monday.
Mistaken identity? The son was inside his house drinking and using cocaine all day. The father have been drinking all day as well. I doubt the son would have recognized his own image in the mirror, not to mention anyone else.
Is this two shootings in two days? Or two different accounts of the same shooting?
It may be the first homicide of the year, but is it the first or second (or more) shooting?
I remember when East Palo Alto was the murder capital of the USA due to all the drugs gone wild. I really hope the city is not devolving into this again.
I remember Victor as a caring young man who watched out for his younger sister and brother. He was a very nice young man who will be missed by all of his family and friends. Rest In Peace Victor!