West Sac shooting ‘like the OK Corral’
By Brad Smith
Police are still conducting their investigation into the Wednesday night shooting that left one person dead and more than five injured.
According to Lt. Tom Bowler, West Sacramento Police Dept., said that the shooting stemmed from an “ongoing dispute about parked cars” between neighbors.
“Unfortunately, it escalated into this (the shooting),” Bowler said.
Bowler stated that around 6:15 p.m., officers were responding to a reported fight along the 1100 block of Cummins Rd. As officers were en route to the scene, he said, they were told that shots had been fired.
When officers arrived, they found two people lying in the street. One of them, Joeseph Villanueva, 32, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other victim – whose identity has not been released yet – was transported to U.C. Davis Medical Center.
Police said that Villanueva and Michael Moniz, 24, had been involved in a dispute lasting a few months. The two men had been arguing and “then things spiraled out of control.”
The two opened fire on one another, Villanueva with a handgun and Moniz wielding a shotgun. One officer said that the two men turned that city block “into the OK Carrol.”
Police said that more than a dozen rounds had been fired. “As for the other victims,” Bowler said, “they had nothing to do with the dispute. They were innocent bystanders, in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Several neighboring law enforcement agencies assisted in the shooting’s aftermath, including the search for Moniz. He was taken into custody some time after the shooting, police reported.
