Santa Rosa barbecue aims to build bridges between police, residents

Jose Olivares, 12, lives in Puerta Villa, a housing complex in the West Ninth neighborhood of Santa Rosa which has experienced frequent gang violence that residents are often wary of reporting to police.

But Friday night, Olivares and dozens of other kids poured out of their apartments, unafraid, to listen to a local band and eat free burgers served up by Santa Rosa police officers.

“It’s pretty cool,” Olivares said of the police-sponsored neighborhood event. “We get free food and we get to learn about the police.”

Marisol Flores, there with her young daughter, approved. “It’s better than seeing the kids run” from the police, she said.

And that, said Police Sgt. John Cregan, was the goal.

“These kinds of partnerships and community events are so important in Sonoma County and now more than ever,” said Cregan, referencing a distrust of officers resulting from the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by a sheriff’s deputy in 2013 as well as other recent police-related killings around the country.

“We want officers to be out of their cars, to get to know the kids in the neighborhood, so kids can see the officers as human, as someone they can approach,” he said.

Friday’s barbecue comes after three unrelated and unsolved shootings that have taken place in the neighborhood since April, leaving two men wounded. In all three cases, police have had little cooperation from witnesses, he said.

Breaking down that reluctance to talk with police is essential to effectively investigate gang-related violence and prevent future violence, the sergeant said.

“All recent shootings are unsolved and we’ve faced difficulty with people being willing to provide information, they have a lot of fear of being labeled a ‘snitch,’” Cregan said.

“We’re doing what we can to build trust with residents there,” Cregan said.

The neighborhood along West Ninth Street has “historically, been one of the most gang impacted neighbors in our city,” according to Cregan.

Police suspect the recent shootings involve “gang members fighting other gang members,” he said.

On April 20, an unidentified teen on a bicycle shot at two brothers as they stood outside on Rockwell Place. A 19-year-old male whom police described as a “well-known gang member” was hit twice in the leg and his older brother was narrowly missed. The wounded man was on felony probation from a conviction involving a gang-related assault in the same neighborhood, Cregan said.

On June 1, gunfire rang out from a vehicle passing Puerta Villa Apartments on West Ninth Street. The unknown shooter fired a large-caliber weapon after exchanging words with a suspected gang member standing outside. The shooter missed as the victim ran inside without ever calling police to report the incident, Cregan said.

A 20-year-old man showed up at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Santa Rosa with a gunshot wound to his leg, police said. The man told police he was shot on West Ninth Street near Lincoln Elementary School as he walked on the sidewalk, Cregan said. Police said the man is a suspected norteño and the West Ninth Area is commonly associated with a sureño group.

After struggling to get information from residents, police decided to hold a barbecue to get to know them better. They held it at Puerta Villa Apartments, one of several housing complexes in the area. New owners took over the complex about two years ago and Cregan credited them with hosting the event as well as taking other steps to address some of the gang violence, including installing better lighting and surveillance cameras.

“They’ve made tremendous improvements,” Cregan said. “And they’ve worked very closely with the gang unit.”

The owners, Kim Roper and Kenneth Garrett, paid for the band, a local group called Los Guerreros Del Valle, as well as an area ice cream vendor.

Representatives from the city’s Recreation and Parks department, the Neighborhood Revitalization Program and the Santa Rosa Violence Prevention Partnership, as well as California Youth Outreach, were there as well.

Residents formed a long line waiting for a hamburger, served up by Cregan, while many children got their faces painted by a city employee. Other kids flocked to two motorcycle officers who stood by their bikes, handing out SRPD stickers and fake tattoos and cheering when the children demonstrated their best cartwheels.

Later, officers raffled off bicycles and toys purchased with the help of a donation from Target.

Mike Lazzarini, the police lieutenant in charge of investigations, was there taking pictures. He said he thought such efforts set Santa Rosa’s police department apart from others in the region.

“I think we’re ahead of the curve,” he said.

Khaalid Muttaqi, program manager for the Santa Rosa Violence Prevention Partnership, said it was a great step to bring the event right to the affected neighborhood, so all residents had to do was walk out their front door.

“It’s a shift of approach,” he said. “We could have had the meeting at a school across the street. Instead, let’s break some bread, share some music on a nice summer day together and hang out.”