A 4-year-old child was critically injured in a shooting in Vallejo’s Crest neighborhood Sunday, the latest in a wave of gun violence since the beginning of the New Year.
Vallejo police were conducting an unrelated operation in north Vallejo when the shooting occurred, department spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis said in an interview Monday.
At approximately 8:31 p.m., Sgt. Matthew Komoda reported hearing multiple gunshots east of officers’ location, according to dispatch audio.
“There’s more gunshots, and it’s going to be automatic,” Lt. Jodi Brown said moments later.
“We’re getting a lot of phone calls for it right now,” a Vallejo dispatcher said.
“Alright, why don’t we all head over there and start doing some area searches here for this,” Brown responded. “Let’s move.”
Police arrived soon after and found dozens of bullet casings across two crime scenes on Sawyer Street at the intersections of Mark Avenue and Gateway Drive. The city’s Raven gunshot detection system helped police locate the shooting scenes, according to dispatch audio.
Minutes later, staff at Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center told police a mother arrived at the hospital with an unconscious child, initially estimated to be 2 years old, suffering from a gunshot wound. Several officers rushed to meet them.
“The hospital called and stated that a toddler was walked into the hospital suffering from at least one gunshot wound and was listed in critical condition,” Hollis told Open Vallejo. The child was alive as of Monday, he added, although he was unable to elaborate.
At the scene later that night, an officer said police had located 71 bullet casings. Both pistol and rifle caliber casings were scattered across a wide swath of Mark Ave and Sawyer Street, where police said the shooting started. More bullet casings and broken glass lay strewn across the second scene near Gateway Drive.
Vallejo has seen multiple shootings in the first two weeks of the new year, in which at least five people have been injured. Last week, a house on Texas Street was targeted in an apparent drive-by shooting in which the assailants fired at least 30 rounds from an automatic weapon and a rifle, shattering car and home windows and riddling the exterior with bullet holes.
There have been no homicides in Vallejo so far this year, according to police. A fatal shooting on New Year’s Eve brought the 2024 homicide count to 25, making it one of the city’s deadliest years in decades.
“We urge anyone with information regarding this case to contact our detective division,” Hollis said of Sunday’s shooting. “This is a senseless act of violence that the Vallejo Police Department takes extremely serious and we are committed to bringing those responsible to justice.”
