Vallejo Police Investigate 2 Separate Fatal Shootings In Space Of 8 Hours
VALLEJO (CBS SF) -- Police in Vallejo on Thursday announced they are investigating two separate fatal shootings that happened since Wednesday night.
The two incidents are the 20th and 21st homicides this year in Vallejo, police said.
Police responded to the first incident at around 8:18 p.m. Wednesday evening in the vicinity of 201 Maine Street after shots were heard coming from that area.
Arriving officers found an unresponsive adult male victim lying on the sidewalk near the intersection of Maine Street and Sacramento Street. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.
The second incident happened at approximately 12:10 a.m. Thursday morning when Vallejo Police received multiple calls of gunshots and a collision in the area of Adele Drive and Vanessa Street. Arriving officers found what appeared to be a collision and a shooting scene with multiple casings discovered near 180 Adele. Cars in the area were found to have multiple bullet holes
A local hospital notified police that a black male suffering from at least one gunshot wound had arrived. He was later pronounced deceased by hospital staff.
Vallejo police detectives and crime scene personnel are investigating both cases. The identity of both victims is being withheld pending notification by the Solano County Coroner's Office.
The Vallejo Police Officers' Association issued a statement regarding the two murder cases, noting that the city is on pace to break the worst year on record for murders. In 1994, 30 murders occurred in Vallejo, the highest in city history, the statement said.
The statement also said that just earlier this week, the members of the VPOA had called for "the city and police chief to fully staff and fund VPD to provide levels comparable to other major cities in the Bay Area."
"The City is applying a Band-Aid to a serious murder and crime spree when it should be taking long-term actions to correct a life-threatening situation for Vallejo citizens," the statement read.
The Vallejo Police Department has been under fire this year after a number of controversies.
Two separate fatal officer-involved shootings -- the February 2019 shooting of rapper Willie McCoy aka Willie Bo after being woken up in a Taco Bell drive-thru and the the fatal shooting of San Francisco resident Sean Monterrosa during a Black Lives Matter protest in early June -- are both being investigated. Civil rights lawsuits have also been filed in both cases.
In July, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams announced that her office would recuse itself from reviewing the deadly Vallejo police shootings.
Embattled Police Chief Shawny Williams -- who only started the job last year -- also announced in late July that he was opening an inquiry into allegations that officers bent their badges to mark on-duty killings. Last month, documents revealed that Williams recommended the termination of one of the officers involved in the Williams shooting.
Anyone with information about either shooting is asked to contact Detective Long at 707-648-4514 or Detective Caitham at 707-648-4280.