Fatal shooting claims life of 15-year-old in Vallejo
The shooting is the city's 7th homicide of the year.
(Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
The chief of Vallejo’s police department has expressed frustration over an increase in crime after a teenager was fatally shot this week, the latest case of street violence to plague the city this year.
On Wednesday, officers were sent to the 200 block of Main Street after receiving several citizen reports of gunshots in the area. When police arrived, they found a 15-year-old suffering from at least one gunshot wound, police said in a statement.
The teenager was declared deceased at the scene by fire paramedics, the agency said. Due to his age, the victim’s identity is being withheld by police, who say the investigation into what happened is ongoing.
The shooting was first reported by participants of the Facebook group Vallejo Community, which is led by citizen reporter Sean West of the grassroots public safety website Vallejo Crime & Safety.
The fatality is the seventh reported homicide in the city.
Police say several armed individuals were witnessed fleeing the scene of the shooting. Some of those suspects reportedly shot at armed security guards who responded immediately after the incident, police said. The guards were not injured; it is unknown if any of the suspects were struck by gunfire.
“These deadly attacks on our children and the proliferation of gun violence in our city is not only a public health crisis, but a perpetuation of generational trauma,” Shawny Williams, Vallejo’s chief of police, said in a prepared statement, calling the epidemic of violence a “public health crisis.”
“This vicious cycle of community violence must stop today, and we will not turn a blind-eye to these senseless acts plaguing the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our City,” Williams said.
Over the last several weeks, the agency has urged city officials and members of the public to back several tougher-on-crime initiatives, including an increased used of automated license plate readers and other surveillance technologies.
“We must provide our officers and our community members with the tools to identify individuals who don’t value human life,” Williams said in a statement issued earlier this month. “We cannot be everywhere at once, but technology will help us work smarter.”
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