Man shot, dumped in downtown Santa Rosa after argument outside bar

Three suspects are in custody after an argument late Friday outside a downtown Santa Rosa bar turned deadly.

A 24-year-old Santa Rosa man was dumped early Saturday in the 800 block of Fourth Street. He was found and taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where he died of injuries from a single gunshot wound, the Santa Rosa Police Department said in a press release.

According to police, the incident began outside a Mendocino Avenue bar. A witness called police shortly before midnight Friday to report seeing a verbal fight between a group of people and then hearing two gunshots before four subjects fled the scene in a tan, four-door vehicle.

Police responding to the call found a single shell casing in the road on Healdsburg Avenue directly across from the bar. Police said an officer searching the area located and stopped a similar tan, four-door vehicle traveling south on Brookwood Avenue, south of Fourth Street. As he was talking to the occupants, the officer saw fresh blood inside the vehicle and figured the group had come from the area around the bar.

Police said there were three subjects in the vehicle: two 17-year-olds and a 24-year-old driver. While the officer was detaining the three suspects, police received a call about a man down on Fourth Street and discovered the gunshot victim.

Officers found video footage on Fourth Street that showed a sedan pulling up to a business and the occupants removing a body and placing it in an adjacent alley.

The three suspects detained in the traffic stop appeared to be the same people in the security video.

A further investigation by detectives determined that, just prior to the shooting, the suspects were involved in a fight with another group outside the bar. At some point the suspects and victim got into a vehicle and as they drove away, one of the 17-year-old passengers fired three rounds from a handgun.

Police said they don’t know if the suspect was firing indiscriminately or at the group of people they had been arguing with.

During the shooting, one of the rounds struck a passenger in the front seat. According to police, the other three occupants then drove around downtown Santa Rosa until they dumped the victim’s body on Fourth Street.

The driver, Antonio Boyd, 24, of Petaluma, was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of being an accessory to murder after the fact. Both 17-year-olds, one residing in Rohnert Park and the other in Petaluma, were booked into Juvenile Hall. One faces murder charges while the other was booked on suspicion of being an accessory to murder after the fact. The teenage suspects’ names were not released because of their age.

The identity of the victim is being withheld until next of kin can be notified, police said.

Detectives are asking for help in identifying any other people who might have been involved in or witnessed the fight or shooting. Anyone with information related to the investigation can contact the Tip Line at srcity.org/CrimeTips.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.