Hollister
– New details emerged this week in the shooting death of former
Anzar High School volleyball coach Tamara Smith.
Hollister – New details emerged this week in the shooting death of former Anzar High School volleyball coach Tamara Smith.
Smith, who had coached at the high school for three years, was the victim of a workplace shooting on Friday.
Authorities said Aromas resident Steven Smith wrote out a short will before driving to the Lode Street Wastewater Treatment Facility in Santa Cruz where he fatally shot Tamara Smith, his estranged wife, and the man she lived with before turning the gun on himself.
The details shed new light on the tragedy.
“It really served as a closing for us as a part of how he planned it. It shows he intended on dying that day,” Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Lt. Phil Wowak said.
Steven Smith, 50, shot Tamara Smith and her live-in boyfriend, Michael Sotelo, Friday morning. All three worked at the wastewater plant.
Tamara Smith died on Saturday at the Dominican Santa Cruz hospital. She had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head.
During her time coaching volleyball at Anzar, Tamara Smith coached her daughter, Stephanie, 22, an Anzar graduate.
The flag at Anzar is flying at half staff to honor the loss of a staff member. Anzar Principal Charlene McKowen said the school had grief counselors on site to help any students who were affected by the loss.
“We’re just concentrating on Stephanie right now,” McKowen said.
Few current Anzar students knew Tamara Smith, but McKowen said she is sure the loss will affect the community.
Both Steven Smith and Sotelo were declared dead at the scene as result of gunshot wounds.
In addition to the handwritten will, which was found in a search of Steven Smith’s house on Friday, the detectives also found multiple firearms and ammunition. Some of the ammunition was consistent with the weapons found at the scene.
Police detectives said they believe Steven Smith planned the attack on Sotelo and Tamara Smith and planned on taking his own life.
The investigation will remain open until an autopsy on Tamara Smith is completed, Wowack said.
Police said co-workers described the shooting as the result of a love triangle. Investigators couldn’t confirm a romantic relationship between Sotelo and Tamara Smith, but believe Steve Smith may have been angered because Sotelo was trying to act as an intermediary between the couple, Sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Plageman Plageman said.
About 40 people work at the Lode Street facility, which is operated by the Santa Cruz County Sanitation District and processes sewage from Live Oak, as well as the nearby towns of Capitola, Soquel and Aptos.
Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 336 or at [email protected].
