Rebuffed crashers shoot up Fresno frat party

FRESNO — Party crashers turned away from a fraternity party over the weekend returned with guns and shot the place up in a drive-by that left two students with minor injuries.

The shooting took place around 1:30 a.m. Sunday at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house on the corner of Shaw and Cedar avenues, across the street from the University of California, Fresno campus.

Fresno State Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity members

Two men and one female were shot and suffered minor leg injuries. According to police Lt. Mark Salazar, the victims were in their late teens to early 20s. Two of the victims are enrolled for the fall 2011 semester at Fresno State. The names of the victims have not been released.

“The shooting occurred after two men tried to crash the party,” Salazar said. “Fraternity members refused to allow them in and the two men returned to their car. When the car sped away, the suspect fired four to six shots into the crowd.”

Salazar added that at least 150 people were inside the fraternity house at the time.

On Monday, Sally Ramage, the director of student involvement at Fresno State, announced that the fraternity had been suspended from participating in any social events on the campus during the ensuing investigation. Ramage said current members of the fraternity can still live in the house.

Sally Ramage, Director, Student Involvement, California State University, Fresno

This isn’t the first time that Pi Kappa Alpha has come under scrutiny from university administrators.

“The fraternity was on probation as recently as fall of last year after a school investigation found safety concerns at an off-campus event the fraternity hosted,” Ramage said.

Campus police Chief David Huerta said that while the fraternity has a history of rowdy behavior, Sunday

was the first time in his eight years at the university that a student was injured in a shooting at any fraternity function.

The suspects being sought are a Hispanic male in his early 20s who stands at 5-foot-1 and 120 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red cut-off shirt. The second suspect is being described as a black male, also in his early 20s. No other information was available regarding the second suspect.

According to witnesses, the car used in the drive-by was a silver/gray model with four doors.

Fresno State campus police is urging students or anyone on the campus to be aware of their surroundings, stay in well-lit area

s, not walk alone and report any suspicious activity to the police.