‘Unsettling’ Santa Rosa park killing has residents concerned

Just behind a Santa Rosa baseball field’s backstop on Monday sits a newly raised makeshift memorial for a 25-year-old man who was fatally shot this past weekend.

The flowers, candle and Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor bottles were placed at the southwest baseball field at Hilliard Comstock Northwest Community Park along Steele Lane.

All was quiet at the park Monday afternoon, but the memorial served as a reminder to nearby residents of a tragic shooting that, they say, was highly unusual for the northwest Santa Rosa neighborhood.

“It’s unsettling that this happened here,” said Maryanne Day, 70, who has lived in a neighborhood directly east of the park for 10 years. “I heard sirens Saturday and I don’t think there were ever that many around here at once.”

The 35-acre park is southeast of Steele and Marlow Road and includes sports fields, picnic areas, walking paths and restrooms across a sprawling area surrounded by residential neighborhoods.

About 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Santa Rosa police responded to gunfire at the northern section of the park where there are three baseball fields and found the unresponsive victim with at least one gunshot wound.

Officers provided medical aid but he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department.

The Santa Rosa man’s name has yet to be released.

Just before the shooting, he and his friends were approached by two others who made “gang challenges,” police said.

The victim, who police said did not know them and had no ties to gangs, got into a struggle with one of the strangers and was fatally shot before the pair ran away.

One of them was described as between 5’3“ and 5’4”tall, 130 pounds, with black hair and a thin mustache. He was wearing a black sweatshirt, dark pants and black shoes, police said.

The other was between 5 feet, 6 inches and 5 feet, 7 inches tall, 140 pounds, with black hair. He was wearing a black sweatshirt and dark pants.

The shooting happened just yards from Hilliard Comstock Middle School, where classes appeared to be in session as normal on Monday.

Beth Berk, spokeswoman for Santa Rosa City Schools, said parents and staff from nearby schools had been notified about the shooting. Support services, such as counseling, are available for any students that want them, she added.

Few people were in the park Monday afternoon and of those who were, most seemed unaware a shooting had occurred there. Those who were concerned, though, were homeowners in the surrounding vicinity.

“It’s just a tragedy someone died and it’s shocking it happened somewhere this sort of thing shouldn’t happen at,” said a homeowner who only identified himself as Gilbert, 50.

Santa Rosa police previously investigated gunfire at the park toward the end of May last year, following a car-to-car shooting. The victim survived after driving himself to a fire station. Two suspects were later arrested.

Saturday’s fatal shooting is Santa Rosa’s third homicide of the year.

The first one happened Jan. 15 outside a food truck at Sebastopol Road and West Avenue.

In that one, Santa Rosa resident Brayan Perez-Lara, 31, was waiting in line for food when he was fatally shot, police said. A suspect, Inocencio Dunuan, a 27-year-old from Santa Rosa, was later arrested.

The second homicide occurred March 18 following a dispute between two groups outside a downtown Santa Rosa bar on Mendocino Avenue.

Members of one of the groups got into a car and drove from the scene. As they did so a back seat passenger opened fire. One of the bullets struck and later killed Dominic Zumsteg, 24, who was in the front seat of the car.

The three other people in the car were arrested. The shooter could face a possible charge of murder, while the other two were arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to murder after the fact.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi.