72
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP VIA AP
In a May 11 photo, emergency personnel investigate the scene of a shooting on westbound Highway 4 in Pittsburg, Calif. Northern California authorities are grappling with more than 20 drive-by shootings on two area freeways that have claimed six lives and injured several more.
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP VIA AP
In a May 11 photo, Westbound Highway 4 in Pittsburg, Calif., is closed as police investigate a shooting. Northern California authorities are grappling with more than 20 drive-by shootings on two area freeways that have claimed six lives and injured several more.
SAN FRANCISCO » A California city has moved to install surveillance cameras along a stretch of highway as authorities investigate a spate of freeway shootings that have taken the lives of six people, including a young mother of four, in the suburbs east of San Francisco.
The decision on Monday by Pittsburg is the latest action aimed at solving and stopping the attacks that also injured 11 people in the past year.
Police say all 20 drive-by shootings on or near two major highways have been gang-related.
“Without exception, these cases … are not random,” California Highway Patrol officer Daniel Hill said.
Freeway shootings have occurred for decades throughout California. But the frequency and scattered locations of the latest attacks have frightened motorists and snarled traffic.
The California Highway Patrol, FBI and two dozen local law enforcement agencies have launched a task force to stop the violence, but so far just one person has been arrested on suspicion of wounding a motorist on April 1.
The latest shooting occurred on May 10, when 25-year-old Shanique Maria was shot and killed on Highway 4 in Pittsburg.
Authorities say a shooter riding in a white Mercedes gunned down Maria while she was a passenger in a black Lexus on road linking San Francisco and Stockton.
The Lexus veered off the highway, hit a dirt embankment and rolled over as the shooter sped away.
Other shootings occurred along a six-mile stretch of Interstate 80 near Richmond and on nearby connector highways and freeways.
The Pittsburg City Council agreed to spend $100,000 to install the surveillance cameras along the four miles of Highway 4 that cut through the blue-collar city of 65,000 people about 40 miles east of San Francisco.
“You have people that are concerned,” Councilman Sal Evola said.
Police in the city already have access to more than 200 cameras at major intersections and shopping malls. The new cameras will be plugged into the city’s existing surveillance system.
Evola said city leaders began considering the highway cameras after 28-year-old Uriel Moreno was shot to death in April. It was the city’s first homicide of the year.
The cameras took on a new urgency with the killing of Maria, 25, whose children range from 9 months to 5 years old.
Police say it appears that victims were initially targeted on surface streets then followed onto highways and shot. The shootings have occurred at all hours of the day.
“It’s an easy getaway and no one hears the gunshots,” Pittsburg police Capt. Ron Raman said. “Witnesses called our dispatch with reports of a collision” after the killings of Maria and Moreno.
The task force is conducting searches of suspects on parole or probation and is obtaining warrants to search homes. Officers have arrested 77 people on suspicion of gang activity.
California Highway Patrol officer Daniel Hill said a number of surviving victims have not been cooperative. Authorities are seeking help from any witnesses, even if they think their information is insignificant.
“These cases could turn on the smallest detail,” Hill said.
scary..east SF is a pit of hell as far as gang crime goes.
Make the highways a gun free zone, I am sure this will work. People will be afraid to break the law. Ohh wait, never mind, the sanctuary city of San Francisco wants let more illegal Mexican Cholo’s into the city and grants them full amnesty so they can put everyone else in-check as they waive their Mexican flags all over TV to let us know that they will outright refuse to assimilate or follow any laws.
Maybe if firearms weren’t so easy to purchase in the first place, this wouldn’t be a problem…as far as the guns go. I’m not even going to get into your ridiculous prejudices.
California highways are gun free zones. So tell me why all the murders and shootings keep happening in gun free zones? Ohh wait, all the criminals know that the next victim is likely a law abiding citizen that doesn’t carry a gun and the criminals know that there will not be any return fire so they can make hits with almost 100% certainty that they’ll be able to commit crimes and murders without concern or little to no repercussions. Criminals also know that even if caught, they’ll practically never be executed in California as California only executed 13 inmates since 1978 as death row inmates waited an average of 23 years before actually being executed. As far as prejudices are concerned, are you claiming that illegal Mexicans aren’t waiving their Mexican flags all over national TV and rioting against Trump and immigration reform setbacks? Are you also insinuating that they aren’t even mocking the US laws and law enforcement agencies by rioting in a country they have zero rights be be in and telling us that we NEED to grant them amnesty? You sir need to get your head checked because you seem delusional thinking these events don’t occur and claiming I’m prejudice when I only state the obvious facts.
We can’t vacation in Europe and there goes California. Guess we’ll finally have to buy a bar-b-cue at Costco.