The Hollister Police Department and San Benito County Sheriff’s Department officers responded to multiple shootings Wednesday and are still investigating the incidents.
HPD officers responded to a shooting on Sherwood Drive that resulted in two teenagers sustaining non-life threatening injuries after being shot and a second shooting in San Juan of an adult male who was reported as in stable condition on Thursday. The victims were flown by air ambulance to regional hospitals. There was an additional report of shots fired at the Park-n-Ride lot at Hwys. 101 and 129 the same evening, with no injuries reported.
Police officers and sheriff’s deputies believe the same suspect or suspects were involved in all three shootings as witnesses reported seeing a white Honda Accord at all three locations.
At about 8:20 p.m., HPD officers responded to a disturbance at the corner of Park Street and Sherwood Drive, in Hollister. As they were responding, they received a second call that shots had been fired in the area. They arrived to find a 17-year-old male and 16-year-old male with gunshot wounds. Witnesses reported a white Honda Accord had pulled up to the corner and that an occupant of the vehicle exited the car, asked the juveniles where they were from and then fired at them multiple times.
The Honda was last seen speeding away from the scene on Park Street.
Officers received crowd control and witness contact assistance from San
Benito County Deputies during the investigation of the shooting on Sherwood Drive.
While Hollister detectives were finishing processing the scene on Sherwood Drive, dispatchers received a call of a shooting at about 10:37 p.m. in San Benito County at the Park-n-Ride lot at Hwys. 101 and 129. A short time later, at 10:42 p.m. dispatchers received another call of a shooting in the 200 block of Fifth Street in San Juan Bautista. A Hispanic male adult in the San Juan Bautista shooting was flown to a bay area hospital with a gunshot wound and is listed in stable condition.
Winesses at the San Juan Bautista shooting and the Park-n-Ride shooting reported that the suspects were in a white Honda Accord.
Hollister Police Detectives completed their investigation on Sherwood Drive and assisted the sheriff’s deputies with the processing of the scene in San Juan Bautista and the Park-n-Ride.
Hollister Police Department detectives and the Hollister Police Department gang officer are collaborating in this investigation with the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office detectives.
The initial evidence indicates the Hollister shooting appears to be gang motivated and involves possibly the same suspect vehicle as the San Benito County incidents, a police statement said.
Anyone with information regarding these shootings is asked to call Officer Carlos Rodriguez at 636-4330 at Hollister Police Department or Sgt. Tony Lamonica at San Benito County Sheriff’s Office at 636-4080. Persons wishing to remain anonymous
may call WeTIP at (800) 78-CRIME. Information provided to WeTip may result in an award of up to $1,000.
