Another mass shooting in the United States leaving 3 dead and 8 wounded in Richmond, CA

Another mass shooting in the  United States leaving 3 dead and 8 wounded in Richmond, CA 

By Edward Era Barbacena

Three people were killed in gunfire that erupted at a house party in Richmond late Sunday — the second mass shooting to jolt the East Bay in as many days. It was assumed that it was meant to silence the festive sound of live marimba at a house party  at Bay area in Richmond

Officers received a call about the shooting on the 2100 block of Dunn Avenue shortly before 11 p.m., according to Richmond police Lt. Matt Stonebraker, a spokesperson for the department.

They arrived to find vehicles fleeing a residence where a house party had been organized with between 80 and 100 people in attendance.

A crime scene restoration crew member cleans blood off the sidewalk after the mass shooting at a Richmond house party.

Three people were killed in gunfire that erupted at a house party in Richmond late Sunday — the second mass shooting to jolt the East Bay in as many days.

Officers received a call about the shooting on the 2100 block of Dunn Avenue shortly before 11 p.m., according to Richmond police Lt. Matt Stonebraker, a spokesperson for the department.

They arrived to find vehicles fleeing a residence where a house party had been organized with between 80 and 100 people in attendance.

Police found eight people suffering from gunshot wounds. Three of them died at the scene of the shooting, one victim is in serious condition and the remaining four did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Stonebraker said.

All of the victims were men between the ages of 18 and 44, police said. Stonebraker noted that officers had responded to complaints about fireworks on the same block at about 6 p.m. that night. He did not know whether they were connected to the party.

Nataly Lopez, who lives across the street from the house where the shooting occurred, said the block was mostly quiet when she arrived home around 6 p.m. Sunday, though she saw people beginning to arrive for the party.

“Normally it’s quiet here,” Lopez said in Spanish, bending to grab her son as he scurried onto the sidewalk.

On Monday morning, beer cans were scattered throughout the driveway and on patches of grass across the street from the home where the shooting occurred, mingling with a bloody medical pad, a paramedic’s latex gloves and scraps of crime-scene tape.

Lai Saechao, who has lived across the street since 1994, said the noise woke her up at 10:30 Sunday night.

“It was loud,” she said.

Her son, Sean Saephan, wasn’t home last night, but said the police knocked on their door after the shooting. He said the neighborhood is usually quiet, except for fireworks.

Saephan said he doesn’t know the residents at the house where the shooting happened.

“They tend to keep to themselves,” he said.

Oscar Garcia, a member of of the Community Police Review Commission, said this morning his phone buzzed with Facebook alerts about the violence on Dunn Avenue.

Garcia leads the Iron Triangle Neighborhood Council, the central Richmond area adjacent to Belding Woods, where the shooting occurred.

“I was in shock,” Garcia said in a phone interview Monday. “Just the brazenness of it. On Father’s Day. It was surreal.”

Garcia grew up in the Iron Triangle and recalls the first time he had to run from a drive-by shooting, during fourth-grade recess at Lincoln Elementary School in 1991.

As a kid he learned to distinguish the pop of the high-caliber weapon from that of a regular handgun, to determine whether he had to duck. A shooting occurred three blocks from Garcia’s house just weeks ago, and he saw officers roaming the neighborhood when he came home from work.

Police are still investigating the Dunn Avenue incident, and Stonebraker said it was not yet clear what might have prompted the shooting.

The Richmond City Council voted last week to eliminate 12 vacant positions from the department, bringing the force down to 145 officers — its lowest number in 18 years. The council shifted $3 million from the department over to social programs to help the unhoused, provide youth jobs and bolster the Office of Neighborhood Safety, which aims to reduce gun violence.

Morale among rank-and-file officers is low, Police Chief Bisa French told the Chronicle last week, adding that two people had resigned by Friday. French was not immediately available for comment on Monday.

City Council Member Melvin Willis, who was raised in Belding Woods and now represents the area, said he heard sirens wailing late Sunday night from his home near the Phila Burger Station restaurant on 23rd Street.

“It’s unspeakable,” Willis said. “It causes a lot of concerns in terms of safety in the community.”

Willis was among the council members who supported cuts to the Police Department, saying the city needs to invest in resources that address the root causes of violence. He linked the recent uptick in Richmond to job loss and economic stress brought on by the pandemic.

Richmond has seen 11 homicides so far this year, more than double the five it marked by the end of June last year. Police say they are starved for resources. Ben Therriault, president of the Richmond police union, said the city at one point had a robust closed-circuit camera system to monitor cars traveling through the central Richmond area that includes Belding Woods, but many of the cameras are broken and the department does not have enough staff to monitor them.

Mayor Tom Butt described the shooting on Sunday as part of a horrible surge that’s engulfed the Bay Area.

“I think we have an obligation to our residents to do everything we can,” Butt said, adding that it’s an inopportune moment for Richmond to “downsize its police force.” The mayor has vehemently criticized the council’s plan to shave the department’s budget.

Sunday’s slayings followed another burst of gun violence in Oakland on Saturday evening, when one person died and seven others were wounded in a shooting on Lakeshore Avenue near Lake Merritt.