Fresno drive-by kills 1, wounds 3
Assembly Member Samuelian’s aide is among those hurt.
By Louis Galvan and Jennifer M. Fitzenberger
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Saturday, August 21, 2004, 6:51 AM)
A woman was killed and three other people were wounded in a drive-by shooting
early Friday outside a home in northeast Fresno.
Police were not releasing the names of any of the people shot near Fashion
Fair mall, but one of them, Bo Patatian, is an aide to Assembly Member Steve
Samuelian, working out of Samuelian’s Fresno office. Patatian is in critical but
stable condition at University Medical Center.
Samuelian, R-Clovis, said Patatian, a staff assistant, underwent surgery and
is expected to recover. He reportedly was shot once in the abdomen and twice
in the shoulder or arm.
Another member of Samuelian’s staff, Lisa Hawkins, witnessed the shooting but
was not injured, Samuelian said. Hawkins is a field representative from
Kingsburg.
The two staffers had been out celebrating someone’s birthday and were among a
group of people outside a house when someone opened fire from a car,
Samuelian said.
Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said the shooting was reported in the 600
block of East Keats Avenue shortly after 2 a.m.
Two men and two women, all reportedly in their 20s, were hit by the gunfire
and taken to UMC where one of the women, a 27-year-old, died about two hours
later.
The other two victims were being treated for injuries described as not
life-threatening. Dyer declined to release any names pending further investigation.
The victims were outside a two-story home among a group of people, some of
whom reportedly had just walked back from a nearby nightclub, when the shooting
occurred.
A dark-colored car drove by and made a U-turn, and someone in the car started
shooting, Dyer said; it was not clear whether the car came to a stop or was
moving when shots were fired.
The car was last seen going west on Keats.
Dyer said a motive has not been determined and that it was not known whether
the shooter was aiming at a specific person or just shooting into a crowd.
Investigators were also trying to determine whether anything had occurred at the
nightclub that might have led to the shooting.
The club, On the Rocks, is a few blocks away on First Street just north of
Shaw Avenue.
A club employee who would not give his name said the group had rented a VIP
lounge to celebrate a woman’s birthday. Members of the group arrived between
10:30 and 11 p.m. and left at 1:45 a.m., he said. The employee also said there
were no disturbances at the club and that no one was escorted out by bouncers.
Dean Hoffinger, an events promoter in Fresno, said he has known people in
that group of friends for five years. Some attend his social events, he said.
“They’re people that are well-known,” he said. “They’re nice people. They
don’t cause problems.”
Sgt. Gregg Sanders said there was no reason for police to believe the
shooting had anything to do with Samuelian’s office.
“It may just be two people from his office that happened to be at the wrong
place at the wrong time,” he said.
Samuelian was in Sacramento early Friday when he found out about the
shooting. He drove to Fresno and visited Patatian in the hospital.
“Bo’s recovering very well. He’s a strong person,” he said. “I was able to
communicate, and he was able to communicate back.”
Samuelian said he did not know the woman who was killed.
“I am deeply saddened and trouble by that, and my sympathies and heart go out
to her family,” he said.
The shooting at the normally peaceful, well-groomed neighborhood left police
and residents shaking their heads.
Lt. Jose Garza said he couldn’t remember the last time police had been sent
to the neighborhood, and residents said the sound of gunshots was foreign to
them.
John Manson, 31, who lives across the street from where the shooting
occurred, said there was no mistaking what woke him and his roommate up from a sound
sleep: “I heard boom, boom, boom. I heard people screaming. I walked out the
door. … I thought I was dreaming. I saw people lying around.”
Manson said he could not believe the shooting was random.
“It was not just a drive-by. It was something that escalated and followed
them here,” he said. “This is a nice area. There has to be a motive.”
Another neighbor, a longtime resident who asked not to be identified, said he
also woke up to shots and screams.
The neighbor said he didn’t know too much about the residents of the home and
only knew one of them by his first name.
Around noon Friday, two men, who declined to comment, rinsed a path to the
front door of the shooting scene. Two women stopped by the house and dropped a
bouquet of flowers near the curb. They declined to be interviewed, but one of
them, apparently referring to the slain woman, described the victim as “full of
sunshine.”
The killing was the fifth slaying in the city since Sunday, bringing the
number of homicides this year to 38 — two more than the total for last year.
Samuelian said he was troubled “that this type of unfortunate incident can
happen in our community.”
“To think that violent criminals can prey on innocent victims as they did in
this case is very unfortunate,” he said.
Bee staff writers Vanessa Colón and Tim Eberly contributed to this report.
The reporters can be reached at [email protected],
[email protected] or (559) 441-6330.