A Santa Cruz Police officer inspects the Beach Flats Park sign after it was struck by a stray bullet
SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz Police Department is calling on the public to keep an eye out for a suspect in a drive-by shooting that occurred on Monday, December 26th, in the Beach Flats area.
That night at around 9 PM, police were summoned to the intersection of Raymond and Leibrandt after reports of a drive-by shooting. They discovered one victim who’d been shot at several times but suffered only a single gunshot wound to the leg.
Several witnesses reported hearing shots or seeing the shooting.
The victim — identified as a 19-year-old male — said he’d been approached by occupants of a vehicle and shot at several times, one striking him and another striking an unoccupied vehicle parked nearby. One also struck a concrete wall and lodged inside the Beach Flats Park sign (pictured above).
The wound to the victim’s leg was significant enough to warrant an airlift to a Bay Area trauma center.
The suspects — described as two to three Hispanic males in a light-colored four-door compact car with tinted windows — were last seen driving the wrong way down Raymond Street toward Beach Street. Police believe the shooting is gang-related.
