Hollister
– Two more homes were targeted with gunfire over the weekend,
raising concerns about increasing gang violence.
Hollister – Two more homes were targeted with gunfire over the weekend, raising concerns about increasing gang violence.
Police believe both shootings were gang-related. There have been five similar incidents this year, all within the past month.
The first shooting occurred between 7:30 and 8pm Friday on Plumtree Lane in the Mission Oaks Mobile Home Park, police said. Two shots were fired at an unoccupied home, said Rosie Betanio, a spokeswoman for the Hollister Police Department.
When the residents, a 51-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man, came home, they found two bullet holes in the living room window, Betanio said. Officers found the two bullets inside the home.
The 19-year-old is believed to be a member of the Sureño street gang, Betanio said.
The second shooting of the weekend occurred at 12:19am Sunday in the first block of East Street, police said. Two shots were fired into the home, Betanio said. A 17-year-old boy, 19-year-old woman and 8-year-old girl were in the home at the time of the shooting.
Authorities believe the 17-year-old boy is a member of the Norteño street gang.
Betanio said the East Street shooters may have been on foot.
No one has been injured in any of the five shootings this year. Police do not know if the weekend’s shootings are connected, although they involved rival street gangs. There were no witnesses to either shooting.
The shootings are the third and fourth suspected gang-related shootings within the past four weeks.
Police Chief Jeff Miller said violence is up throughout the state.
“It’s further evidence that Hollister is not an isolated little community unto itself,” he said.
The shootings, coupled with an attempted robbery at Premiere Cinemas that police say was gang-related, made for a violent weekend, Miller said. Gang activity has worsened in Hollister in recent years, Miller said.
“It’s not getting better right now,” he said. “I don’t think it’s for lack of trying.”
Police continue to investigate the city’s three other shootings since mid-February.
The year’s first shooting was a drive-by on a home in the 800 block of B Street on Feb. 13. Authorities now believe the shooting was gang-related. A resident of the home previously told the Free Lance that he believed it was members of the Norteño street gang.
On March 2, a second gang-related drive-by occurred in the 1100 block of C Street, the former home of 17-year-old Emilio Roman. Roman is accused in the killing of 18-year-old Hollister resident Daniel Gallegos. Police believe Roman is a member of the Sureño street gang.
A third drive-by occurred in the 800 block of Powell Street on March 4. Investigators believe family members of a Hollister woman shot two bullets into her ex-boyfriend’s home and drove away in a red GMC Sierra pickup truck.
In 2006, there were six drive-by shootings in Hollister, according to police records.
Anyone with information about the shootings is encouraged to call the Hollister Police Department at 831-636-4330.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
