Santa Rosa police arrested a juvenile and two adults Thursday in connection with a gang-related shooting Wednesday evening that injured four people at a crowded west Santa Rosa park.
One of the victims, a 21-year-old man who was shot in the chest, was the target of the shooting, police said.
Three bystanders were shot once each on West Ninth Street: an 11-year-old boy who was walking toward a parked car, a 46-year-old man who was getting soccer gear out of his car and a 20-year-old man putting on his soccer cleats on the sidewalk.
None of the four victims, who live in Santa Rosa, suffered life-threatening injuries, Lt. Ryan Corcoran said.
The shooting happened around 7:30 p.m. at Jacobs Park near the intersection of Link Lane and West Ninth Street, where hundreds of people were attending several soccer games, Corcoran said.
A dark-colored SUV was driving back and forth on West Ninth as the 21-year-old intended victim walked on the sidewalk with friends, Corcoran said. A passenger in the SUV yelled gang challenges at the group, the vehicle pulled over as the group approached and a young Hispanic male got out and approached the victim with a handgun, Corcoran said.
The victim tried to run and the suspect fired at least 10 rounds in a western direction down the sidewalk, Corcoran said. The shooter got back in the SUV, which then drove south on Link Lane, Corcoran said. Twenty Santa Rosa police detectives investigated the shooting and identified a 17-year-old Rohnert Park boy as the suspected shooter. Detectives followed the suspects’ vehicle north on U.S. Highway 101, then west on state Highway 128 to Boonville in Mendocino County on Thursday. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and Santa Rosa police stopped the SUV around 7:30 p.m.
One of the people inside the SUV smashed a cellphone into multiple pieces, apparently to destroy evidence, Corcoran said.
The 17-year-old alleged shooter was booked in Sonoma County juvenile hall on four counts of attempted murder with a gang enhancement and for being a gang participant, Corcoran said.
Michael Beltran, 23, and Lukas Philip Cortina, 19, both of Santa Rosa, were booked in the Sonoma County Jail for being an accessory after the fact, being a gang participant and obstructing or delaying an officer. Police said the case is still under investigation, and they will not release information about the gang involved, statements that were made or what led up to the shootings. Police said they do not want to give the gang any notoriety for their acts of violence that terrorized people at the park Wednesday night.
Corcoran said there have been 26 calls for service at Jacob’s Park in the last three years. Two of those calls involved gang violence, including a stabbing in September 2018 and Wednesday’s shootings.
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