Orinda Police Stay Silent On Halloween Airbnb Shooting Investigation
ORINDA (KPIX 5) – The families of victims killed in the mass shooting at an Orinda Airbnb party house on Halloween night are experiencing frustration after getting radio silence from police two weeks after the deadly incident.
Criminal investigations take time, but some Orinda neighbors and victims family members want to know why it is taking so long for police to release any kind of update since the shooting that took the lives of five young people.
Orinda police are currently referring all calls to the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, saying they have no new information on the case.
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Police never responded to noise complaints called in by neighbors on the night of the shooting prior to gunfire erupting at 10:49 p.m. It was later revealed that officers were assigned to others higher priority calls outside of Orinda.
"They never showed up. Never," said the neighbor who lives next door to the house on Lucille Way where the shooting happened.
He called police again when shots rang out.
"It took some time to come over here, but that was too late," he said.
Almost two weeks later, when asked if the police had asked him any questions about who or what he saw the night of the shooting, the neighbor said they had not. That left him surprised.
Surveillance video KPIX 5 obtained from a neighbor showed two people holding guns. Despite that new evidence, investigators aren't releasing any updates. The shooter or shooters are still at large.
KPIX 5 asked security analyst Jeff Harp why police might be so tight lipped.
"They are not going to tip their hand. They aren't going to go out and give a big press release of who they are looking at until they have that person in custody," said Harp. "It's very easy for that person to slip through the cracks."
Lafayette Airbnb host Brittan McLevis tells KPIX 5 a month prior to the Orinda mass shooting, he had a rowdy group of renters throw a party that ended with him being assaulted.
"These guys came at with with a gun," said McLevis. "This person rented it saying they were having a reunion and it ended up being an out of control party "
He says he reported it to police and Airbnb when the renters got physical with him. And he called authorities again after the Orinda shooting.
"And I just said, 'I want to talk to somebody." Because nobody has called me back and this happened four weeks ago with me," said McLevis. "And still nothing had happened from the Contra Costa Sheriff's Deptartment."
Lawyers for the family of Orinda shooting victim Raymon Hill Jr. said that the police had not been in touch with updates, only adding to his parents' grief.
A new report indicates also the owners of that home at 114 Lucille Way had a history of allowing Airbnb renters to throw big parties on the property.
According to records obtained by the Mercury News, as recently as last February, Michael Wang and Wen-Lin Luo were charging $800 for large parties plus a $350 cleaning fee.
At one point they had posted on Airbnb that renters could throw parties at the house with as many as 30 guests, but later amended their rental advertisement.
