WOODLAND — Arnulfo Bermudez Jr. would help anybody in need, and his girlfriend said that’s exactly what he was doing when someone fatally shot him on a Woodland street early Wednesday morning.
“He went there to give somebody a jump on their car,” Tawnya Runninghawk said of her 31-year-old boyfriend, better known to his family and friends as “Happy.”
“He jokes all the time. He can make anybody laugh,” Runninghawk said. “He doesn’t bother anybody, and he’s not out looking for trouble. Why him?”
As of Thursday night, police had yet to make an arrest or publicly identify a suspect in the crime, which marked Woodland’s first homicide of 2016.
According to Sgt. Brett Hancock, officers were summoned at about 12:40 a.m. Wednesday to reports of shots fired in the 500 block of Community Lane. They arrived to find the gravely injured Bermudez in the driver’s seat of his prized red Ford Mustang, which had crashed into a parked car.
Emergency personnel attempted lifesaving efforts, but Bermudez died of his wounds shortly before 1:20 a.m.
About a half-dozen detectives from the Woodland Police Department and the Yolo County Gang Task Force have been assigned to the case, though Hancock stopped short of calling the homicide gang-related Thursday.
“The motivation is unknown at this point, so we can’t say it’s gang related, but the victim was known to associate with gang members in the past,” Hancock said.
But Runninghawk, who had known Bermudez for about five years and dated him for the past year, said that wasn’t the man she knew.
“I’ve never seen him involved in anything like that,” she said of Bermudez, whom she described as a talented mechanic who more recently had picked up side jobs in sheetrock work. “He doesn’t talk about it. He’s always with me or our kids or helping somebody out on the street. That’s not who he is as a person.”
Yolo Superior Court records show Bermudez had about a half-dozen run-ins with the law over the past decade, the offenses ranging from driving under the influence to drug possession to carrying a knife.
Last year, prosecutors charged him with possessing and transporting methamphetamine as well as criminal street gang activity, though the gang allegations were dismissed as part of a plea deal. He was due to be sentenced next week.
On the night of the shooting, Bermudez was at home with Runninghawk when he got the call asking for help jumping a car battery. He left the house at about 11:30 p.m.
“I got a really bad vibe, a bad feeling,” Runninghawk said. “I thought maybe I should tell him not to go right now, but he was already driving away.”
Runninghawk said she fell asleep but was awakened by a knock at the door from an acquaintance, who told her the news that Bermudez had been shot. Runninghawk began riding her bike toward the scene, but was stopped by friends who informed her that Bermudez had passed away.
“I’m still in disbelief, but I know I have to accept it,” said Runninghawk, who said she plans to organize a fundraiser to pay for Bermudez’s funeral expenses. She also hopes to establish a memorial bank account to help Bermudez’s 12-year-old son fund his college education.
“He was really close with him. He spent a lot of time with him,” Runninghawk said. “He was good with my kids, especially my youngest daughter. I don’t know what I’m going to tell her now.”
Anyone with information about the fatal shooting is urged to contact Woodland police at 530-661-7800 or 530-666-2411.
Woodland’s last homicide occurred on Dec. 5, 2015, when Jeffrey Lemus fatally stabbed Kelly Mason Choate during an altercation at Kenny’s Bar & Grill on East St. Convicted at trial of voluntary manslaughter, Lemus faces up to 11 years in prison at his sentencing next week.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene