Shooting outside Santa Cruz harborside restaurant leaves 2 critically hurt
A shooting outside a popular coastside restaurant in Santa Cruz left two people critically injured Thursday evening and a suspect was at large, authorities said.
Santa Cruz police said officers responded at about 8:53 p.m. to the shooting in the parking lot of the Small Craft Harbor at 135 5th Avenue. The shooting happened during a crowded outdoor weekly beach party event at The Crow's Nest restaurant.
Officers arrived to find two people had been shot and began first aid on the victims until medics arrived to take them to a trauma center where they were listed in critical condition.
The investigation determined that some kind of altercation took place in the parking lot before the shooting, police said. The suspect was seen fleeing in a black Dodge Charger.
A witness told Lookout Santa Cruz she was leaving the parking lot near the restaurant when she saw two men walk into an alleyway right before the shooting where gunshots soon rang out.
"A guy came running around saying, 'I got shot, I got shot,' and then he went to the ground right away," the witness, Kim Baker, told Lookout Santa Cruz.
Police said a motive for the shooting has not yet been determined and any witnesses were urged to contact the department.