Police: No suspects in fatal shooting of man found lying in Santa Rosa Jack in the Box drive-thru

As the investigation continues into his shooting death, Jeffrey Farinha’s family are mourning a man they describe as kind and fun-loving but who also wrestled with personal challenges in recent years.

Police responding to reports of gunshots on Sunday night found Farinha lying at the end of a Santa Rosa Avenue Jack in the Box drive-thru. The 40-year-old Rohnert Park man had been shot multiple times.

Police have yet to identify any suspects and are canvassing the neighborhood for surveillance video, said Santa Rosa Police Lt. Chris Mahurin.

A GoFundMe account to help cover the cost of Farinha’s burial and related expenses had raised $7,195 toward a $15,000 goal by Wednesday afternoon.

“The full circumstances leading up to his death are not fully known,” Farinha’s younger sister, Jessica Farinha of Rohnert Park, wrote on the GoFundMe page, www.gofundme.com/f/jeffrey-farinha. “What we do know is that our family will no longer be able to create new memories with him.“

“He was such a kind soul,” she said in an interview. “I knew him as a brother so I have a different connection with him, but a lot of his friends from throughout his childhood and adult life have been reaching out and reassuring me that he was that person to them, as well.”

Jeffrey Farinha had worked as a Lyft and Uber driver and in construction, she said. He enjoyed making people laugh — and was good at it — and was known for his generosity.

Shortly before his death, Jessica Farinha said, she and her brother encountered a man who was homeless and dragging his sleeping bag and personal belongings. Her brother emptied his backpack and gave it to the man so he could carry his things more easily, she said.

“He would quite literally remove the shirt off his back and give it to someone else because his take on it was that he had such a great support system and other people didn’t always,” she added.

In the GoFundMe posting, she also wrote: “Like many of us, my brother had his own demons and this never stopped him from being a bright light in a dark world.”

In an interview, she added, “In recent years he was just really troubled and hanging out with the wrong people.”

She declined to go into further detail.

Jeffrey Farinha is also survived by his parents, Joaquim and Lucia Farinha, his daughters Adelina Farinha and Victoriana Hernandez, his nephew Truett Briggs, his ex-wife AnaLuisa Da Rosa Farinha and his brother-in-law Sam Briggs.

Witnesses or those with related information are asked to contact the Santa Rosa Police Department’s Violent Crime Team at 707-543-3590 or online at srcity.org/CrimeTips.

A reward of up to $2,500 is being offered by the Sonoma County Alliance Community Engagement and Safety Rewards Fund for information leading to arrests.

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay