Man dead after shooting at home in west Petaluma

A 49-year-old man was found dead inside his hillside west Petaluma home on Wednesday, the apparent victim of a shooting and the first homicide in the city this year.

A relative and neighbors identified the man as Arturo Hinojosa and said he had lived in the neighborhood for years, not far from his parents’ home.

A distraught woman called police just before 4 p.m. Wednesday and said there had been a shooting, Petaluma Police Lt. Tim Lyons said.

Lyons said he could not confirm the identity of the man or how he died. Police did not have a suspect in custody.

“We do have active leads,” Lyons said, adding police did not believe the suspect posed a threat to the neighborhood. “There is no indication that is the case.”

Wednesday’s homicide is the first in Petaluma since Kim Conover, 43, was shot and killed by her husband, Kevin Conover, 41, as she left a divorce attorney’s office in April 2012.

The shooting took place on Suncrest Hill Drive, a narrow, quiet lane with no sidewalks off Sunnyslope Road in Petaluma’s southwestern hills near Helen Putnam Regional Park. Large homes with well-kept lawns line the tree-shaded street.

Officers searched the neighborhood and interviewed residents while waiting for a judge to sign a search warrant so they could investigate inside the single-story home. Sonoma County coroner’s officials had not yet arrived by 9 p.m.

Family and friends of the victim gathered during the evening at the foot of Suncrest Hill Drive, some of them in tears and comforting each other.

Beyond confirming Hinojosa’s identity, family members declined to answer questions about the shooting.

By 6:30 p.m., patrol cars blocked part of Sunnyslope Road. A stream of walkers and joggers continued to travel through the neighborhood.

Lyons did not say whether the woman who called police was involved in or witnessed the shooting. Police said they responded to an incident at the same house in July 2013. According to police log records, a Pittsburg man was arrested on suspicion of felony robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime.

“I heard a sound like a pop-pop,” said Myles Perry, who lives nearby. “I didn’t think much about it ,and then I heard the police sirens. I wasn’t even sure where it was, but when I saw all the police cars, I got a pit in my stomach.”

Perry and other neighbors described the area as quiet and “peaceful,” a regular route for bikers and joggers.

Another neighbor who did not want to be identified, said she came home and saw the man’s “aged parents standing in the street.” She said she took them into her house, where she said a police chaplain was with them.

“This isn’t that kind of neighborhood where you worry about walking around at any time of the day or night,” said Bruce Elliott, who lives across the street.

You can reach Staff Writer Elizabeth M. Cosin at 521-5276 or elizabeth.cosin@ pressdemocrat.com.