Investigators should know by Friday what type of bullet killed a
21-year-old Hollister man nearly three weeks ago after a gunfight
outside of a house party.
Investigators should know by Friday what type of bullet killed a 21-year-old Hollister man nearly three weeks ago after a gunfight outside of a house party.
San Benito County Sheriff’s Office deputies said up to six gunmen fired more than 30 shots on Oct. 14 during an exchange between two Valaire Drive homes. The shooting left Robert Anthony Barraza dead and sent another man in his early 20s to a Bay Area hospital with a gunshot wound, deputies reported.
The wounded man, who authorities have declined to identify, is a suspect in Barraza’s death, but has not been arrested or charged in connection with the homicide.
Authorities sent the bullet that killed Barraza to be tested at the California Department of Justice.
Undersheriff Pat Turturici said the Sheriff’s Office should have test results – to determine the caliber of the bullet and potentially match it to a gun – by Friday.
“They said 10 to 14 days,” Turturici said of the DOJ. “It will be 14 days on Friday.”
Turturici added that investigators met with the Barraza family last week, but his relatives declined to speak.
“We’re asking for their help since they were there,” Turturici said.
Barraza’s father, Robert Barraza Jr., said Tuesday that family members had met with deputies, but that they arrived at the party after the shooting.
“I told them everything I know,” Robert Barraza Jr. said.
The day after Barraza’s death, the Hollister Police Department said he had possible ties to the Norteño street gang – which his family members have denied.
Deputies reported that in the early morning hours of Oct. 14, a verbal exchange between a man arriving at a home at the end of Valaire Drive and attendees of a house party next door turned to violence. Guns were drawn and fired, deputies reported.
The man in his early 20s, who is a suspect in Barraza’s death, came out of the Valaire Drive home and was shot, deputies said.
Investigators said the man went inside the home, grabbed a .9mm pistol, exited through the side door nearest Valley View Road and fired a shot. Barraza was at the end of Valaire Drive near Valley View Road when he was shot, the Sheriff’s Office reported. Family members and friends, who gathered by the dozens the day after Barraza’s death, said racial slurs were hurled at party-goers.
