Petaluma police probe city’s first homicide of 2022

Petaluma police are investigating the city’s first homicide of 2022 after a person was assaulted and later pronounced dead in a downtown roadway early Sunday.

The investigation began after a man called the Petaluma Police Department shortly before 2 a.m. to report his friend had been assaulted with a baseball bat, police said in a Nixle alert.

A responding police officer went to the 100 block of Keller Street and found a man in the road who appeared to have been assaulted, according to the alert.

The officer and Petaluma Fire Department paramedics tried to give the man medical aid, but he died from his injuries and was later pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

A portion of the road was blocked off for much of the night as officials continued to investigate the killing. Workers in the area said that by 9 a.m. Sunday, authorities had cleared away any signs of police activity.

Police Lt. Nick McGowan said investigators believe the incident likely began on Kentucky Street and then concluded a block away on Keller Street.

Kentucky Street is where a number of downtown eateries and bars are located.

“We get a lot of calls for fights on Fridays and Saturdays that are typically connected to the bar scene,” McGowan said Sunday afternoon.

It is rare, he said, for these kinds of incidents to become serious in nature.

Tom Gaffey, general manager of the Phoenix Theater on Washington Street, which is across the street from where the police investigation took place, said Sunday afternoon that he has seen fights happen in the area before.

“It’s not a quiet town. It’s a brawling town,” he said.

Gaffey said that in 2006 one of his friends tried to break up a knife fight between two people that started on Water Street downtown. But things went horribly wrong.

“My friend ... lost his life for it,” he said.

Gaffey, 67, said he has worked at the Phoenix Theater since 1983.

He said he grew up in Petaluma and remembers when he and his friends hung out without fear of any harm occurring. He said he is now concerned for the younger generation of people who gather in the area.

“Me and my friends thought we owned this town back then. We were always OK,” he said. “There were weekly brawls happening in the ’80s-2000s. Except, you could get into a brawl and not get shot or stabbed for it.

“It’s different now. I’m concerned about the younger generation. I hope my youngsters are gonna be safe,” he added.

The theater is primarily a venue for music shows, but Gaffey said he’s also tried to make it a safe space where skateboarders and other young people can hang out.

He urged people to “be prepared and aware of your surroundings, and don’t be aggressive.”

Authorities on Sunday did not release the name of the man who was killed.

His cause of his death remains under investigation.

Detectives believe the person responsible for the killing fled the area, possibly in a vehicle, police said.

Investigators are looking for witnesses and surveillance video from nearby businesses and they planned to interview the man who reported the assault, police said.

The killing is the city’s first homicide of 2022. Before this incident, the most recent killing in Petaluma was categorized as an accidental shooting that police discovered while conducting a welfare check nearly a year ago.

Police forced their way into a home on Del Sol Way just after 3 p.m. July 31, 2021, after family reported they hadn’t heard from the elderly couple living there for more than a week.

The man and woman had suffered gunshot wounds to their chests and there was no sign of a struggle or forced entry into their home, according to police.

Authorities later determined that their deaths were the result of suicide with an accidental shooting.

Police urged anyone with information about Sunday’s incident to call Detective Corie Joerger at 707-778-4372.

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