Eighteen-year-old’s shooting death leaves investigators with ‘a lot of questions’

The fatal shooting of an 18-year-old man at an apartment complex in Castro Valley in unincorporated Alameda County on Tuesday night is being treated as a suspicious death, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Deputies who responded to a report of a shooting at the complex in the 3400 block of Redwood Court, a short distance north of Interstate Highway 580 and the Castro Valley BART station, at 10:53 p.m. Tuesday found the 18-year-old dead from a gunshot wound, sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

Investigators determined that a small group of young people were playing with a gun and it discharged and killed the 18-year-old, according to Kelly.

The other people who were at the complex initially told deputies that the 18-year-old accidentally shot himself, but Kelly said:

“There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered.”

The sergeant said investigators are still at the scene questioning everyone who was there.

Kelly said:

“There was a small group of people at a residence who had access to a gun and it discharged and this young man was struck and killed. It’s very unfortunate.”

The gun was recovered by deputies.

Kelly said:

“Investigators are backchecking everything to try to ascertain why this happened.”

It’s not clear at this point if the 18-year-old man lived at the apartment where the shooting occurred, according to Kelly.