WATCH: San Joaquin County sideshow crash caught on camera
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY -- A triple shooting and sideshow activity in San Joaquin County after midnight on Monday has neighbors near 8th and B streets concerned about reoccurring sideshow activity that has now turned deadly.
One person was shot and killed, and two others were shot but are expected to be OK. The sideshow activity started around midnight on Monday, neighbors told CBS13, and escalated within a half hour. By 12:30 a.m. Monday, at least one car crashed into a neighbor's fence — the passenger escaped and hid in a yard, and the driver of the vehicle was dead.
"He was hiding back there, but he was pretty injured on the floor, 'Don't call 911.' Then he said, 'I think they got my partner,' or something like that. They shot him," said Robert De La Torre, a San Joaquin County resident.
De La Torre said although the man, who was injured by a gunshot wound himself, instructed not to call authorities, he didn't listen. He called 911 first to report the crash in his yard then, a second time he said, when he realized the man in the vehicle was not moving.
At the same time, surveillance video taken from a neighbor's surveillance camera, captured at least three dozen vehicles leaving the sideshow, after the crash. Although there is no audio, a neighbor told CBS13 he heard multiple gunshots and then, the crash. Outside their front yards, both protected with security cameras and gates, both neighbors said a line of vehicles moved away from B Street to leave.
Within 90 seconds of the crash, law enforcement lights are caught on camera arriving at the scene.
This is the challenge, according to a California Highway Patrol spokesperson, for law enforcement to get to sideshow activity quickly. As oftentimes, when law enforcement arrives, vehicles move to another location to continue the illegal activity.
That's what happened in San Joaquin County Monday night.
Another challenge for law enforcement, determining where and when sideshows will pop up.
"They seem to be organized on private networks, private messaging. It doesn't seem like there's a specific timeframe," said Officer Ricardo Ortiz, California Highway Patrol spokesperson.
Ortiz said in 2021, CHP responded to more than 7,000 sideshows. By 2022, that number dropped by half, but still, that leaves at least 3,000 sideshows yearly statewide in California.
Challenges with sideshows also include making a positive identification of who is involved. In the case of Monday's sideshow, surveillance video taken at night shows the number of vehicles -- but no specific license plates.
Dozens of evidence markers were out in the blocks-long crime scene Monday morning and early afternoon while investigators reviewed the scene. A black ski mask and black sweatshirt left behind from a gunshot victim, who has non-life-threatening injuries, was taken as evidence by investigators while CBS13 was on the scene.
Neighbors told CBS13 they feel "hopeless" about what comes next, as the sideshow activity happens late at night without warning. Law enforcement urges neighbors, or anyone, who witnesses or finds themselves near sideshow activity to report it, and be vigilant.
