Rohnert Park Man Accused Of Trying To Shoot Roommates
ROHNERT PARK (CBS SF) – A Rohnert Park man was arrested early Wednesday morning after allegedly trying to kill his three roommates with a gun, according to authorities.
Rohnert Park Public Safety officers responded to a home on 900 block of Emily Avenue shortly before 2 a.m. Wednesday morning after a report of a disturbance between four roommates who attend Santa Rosa Junior College.
Officers arrived to find two of the roommates hiding near another home just down the street from where they lived. The two victims said their housemate – identified as 26-year-old Rohnert Park resident Jeremiah Harris – had a gun and tried to shoot them.
The victims said that Harris was walking around the neighborhood armed with a gun and that they were afraid he would find them and shoot them.
According to a press release, officers had come to the same residence the day before on a domestic violence call.
Harris and the other roommates were present during the investigation into that incident and one of the roommates was arrested at the time on a domestic violence charge after he allegedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend.
Later on Tuesday night, after the arrested roommate was released from Sonoma County Jail and returned home, he was told that Harris had been walking around the house with a semi-automatic pistol. The roommates asked the returning roommate to talk to Harris and try to get him to put the gun away.
It was when the victim tried to talk to Harris that Harris became upset, grabbed a loaded magazine and inserted it into the pistol, pointed it at the victim and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire, but the victim ran from Harris into the living room.
Harris followed and locked the front door before trying to reload the pistol and attempting to shoot the victim again, but the gun still would not fire. Harris proceeded to call one of the other roommates out of his room and tried to shoot him. The third roommate also said Harris pointed the gun at him.
When Harris tried to shoot the second roommate, the first victim jumped through the front window of the house to get away, sustaining minor injuries from broken glass. When Harris pursued that roommate, the second victim also left the house. The third roommate stayed at the house with his girlfriend and the second victim's girlfriend who were both there at the time. The third housemate also called police.
Harris was found shortly after the officers arrived. He got on his knees and put his hands up as officers approached and was taken into custody. He told the officers he left the gun and two magazines on the front porch of a nearby home, which officers found.
Harris told officers he had tried to shoot his housemates because he felt threatened by them. Harris did not seem to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time he was interviewed.
Harris was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on charges of attempted murder, assault with a firearm and false imprisonment. He is being held on $1,000,000 bail.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon in Sonoma County Superior Court.
