Man fatally shot in Healdsburg on July 4th identified

Authorities, on Tuesday, released the name of the man shot and killed in North Healdsburg on July Fourth.

His death is the first homicide in three years and the third in a decade for the city of Healdsburg, which has developed a reputation as an idyllic Wine Country destination.

Luis Enrique Gonzalez, 27, of Windsor was pronounced dead Monday evening after officers found him unresponsive on the sidewalk in the 200 block of Monte Vista Avenue, according to Healdsburg Police Chief Matt Jenkins.

The location is about a block away from where the city held its fireworks show.

Police received reports of gunfire around 11:15 p.m., shortly after Healdsburg’s Independence Day celebrations ended and the crowds had dispersed.

Gonzalez’s death, police said, appeared to be a targeted attack.

Investigators, as of Tuesday, had yet to identify any suspects or determine a motive.

Residents of the neighborhood where the fatal shooting occurred said police taped off the northeast corner of Monte Vista Avenue and Lupine Road late into the night Monday. Law enforcement vehicles, they added, lined the street as investigators surveyed the scene.

By Tuesday morning, all signs of the incident were gone. Only the faint sounds of traffic on Highway 101 and the clanging of flagpoles flying red, white and blue flags interrupted the area’s tranquility.

Late in the morning, a cluster of residents gathered at the intersection, sharing their recollection of the night before, when the sleepy neighborhood was stunned by the rare act of violence.

“It was right after the fireworks ended. Everyone just thought it was fireworks,” said Jennifer Cadd, who lives with her daughter a block away.

“I heard gunshots and the sirens,” Phil Workman, who lives around the corner, remembered. “I rolled over and went back to sleep.”

For the city of about 12,000, a well-known tourist attraction about 15 miles north of Santa Rosa, the shooting brought within reach the deadly gun violence most residents had only witnessed from afar via the news.

Jane Houser, who lives a few doors down on Monte Vista Avenue with her husband and dogs, said she had learned of the July Fourth mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, in which six people were killed and dozens injured, just hours before the shots fired down her road woke her up. She, too, said they sounded like firecrackers.

“You don’t think anything like that is going to happen in this little town. Especially on this street. It was a little unnerving,” Houser said.

“It feels like a microcosm of what’s happening all over the country, but obviously it touches a little closer to home,” said Naia Koobatian, whose family was sleeping only one house away from where Gonzalez was found.

Workman, who has lived in the area since the late 1980s, said the incident showed him, “No neighborhood is safe from any of this.”

While the killing was disturbing, city officials maintained it was an isolated and uncommon occurrence.

“Every time there is a loss of life, it’s tragic, and for it to happen in our community is painful for a lot of people,” City Manager Jeff Kay said Tuesday. “I think we all feel it more acutely because of how rare it is. We haven’t been numb to it on a local level like some people are.”

In the past decade, the city has only investigated a total of 23 firearm-involved crimes, including brandishing a gun, assault with a gun, robbery, illegal discharge and others, according to data provided by the police department.

By comparison, Santa Rosa (a city of over 178,000) had 471 reports of shots fired in 2021 alone, with six homicides that year and at least seven homicides already in the first six months of this year, according to authorities.

“Obviously, we would love that number to be zero,” said Jenkins. But, he added, “When we look at the totality of everything, Healdsburg is still a very safe place to be. These acts of violence are generally targeted and specific; they aren’t random.”

“It’s not an indication we have random gunfire along the lines of what we saw in Illinois yesterday,” Kay said.

Monday’s fatal shooting is the Healdsburg Police Department’s third homicide investigation since 2016.

In March 2019, 25-year-old Ivan Torres was stabbed to death at an apartment on Canyon Run. His 18-year-old brother, Moses Torres, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death.

Before that, police launched a homicide probe in 2016 following the death of 4-year-old Maria Jose Ordaz Chavarria. Her father, Gerardo Mendoza Ordaz, eventually pleaded guilty to drowning her in a pool at the Healdsburg Catholic Church.

The rareness of Monday’s homicide was little consolation to those who call North Healdsburg home.

Koobatian’s 11-year-old son, Matisse, was lying in bed when the shooting occurred, his bedroom window just yards away from where police found the victim. He said the experience “shook” him.

All he remembers from the evening were “several bangs,” which he thought were illegal fireworks, then there were sirens and lights that flashed through his window late into the night. His mom told him Tuesday morning what had happened.

He said the shooting made him feel “insecure, because that was right outside our house, so I’m wondering if maybe it’s us next.”

It was one of the first times the elder Koobatian said she had to have a frank conversation with her child about the state of the world.

“We try to filter the news for our kids, and we don’t want them to live in fear,” she said. “It’s a really tough time to be a parent in this country right now, and we want to assure our children that they’re safe and no harm will come to them — but that might be a luxury that Americans don’t have.”

Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call Officer Jason Olvera at 707-431-3377.

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Pera at matthew.pera@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Matt__Pera.