Road worker mistaken for active shooter in Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa police received word around 1:20 p.m. Wednesday that a man had stepped out of his car and began firing indiscriminately at the ground on the 5700 block of Melita Road with what appeared to be a pistol.

Ten police cars rushed to the scene, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office’s Henry 1 helicopter was deployed and a medical team staged.

But the suspect was a road worker subcontracted to use a tool similar to a nail gun to secure rubber tubing to the pavement as part of a traffic survey.

“This is unusual,” said Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Brenda Harrington, who said a resident called police after seeing what appeared to be someone carrying a gun and hearing what sounded like gunfire.

“What the resident did was great,” Harrington said. “That kind of road work is not common in that neighborhood.”

- Nick Rahaim