Mendocino County detectives continue to investigate Manchester homicide

A 32-year-old woman was shot to death on Nov. 19 while sleeping in a Manchester home.|
RANDI ROSSMANN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Mendocino County sheriff’s detectives continue to investigate the shooting homicide of a Manchester woman.

Before dawn on Nov. 19, someone outside a Rancheria Road home sprayed bullets at the residence, according to sheriff’s officials. Several people were asleep inside and the shooting killed resident Nicole Smith, 32, and wounded a 15-year-old girl.

An unnamed “person of interest” was taken into custody on a parole violation soon after the shooting but hasn’t been arrested in connection with the shootings, sheriff’s Lt. Shannon Barney said.

While detectives still are investigating that person, they also are looking at others, Barney said. Detectives don’t believe the shooting was random but Barney released no further details on a possible motive.

The teen was treated for a gunshot wound at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and released.

The home is on the reservation of the Manchester Band of Pomo Indians in the hills east of Manchester along Highway 1.

- Randi Rossmann

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