Woodland police recorded their second homicide of the year just two days after their first, and detectives are investigating whether the two fatal shootings are related.
Authorities identified the victim of the Friday night shooting only as a 35-year-old man, who died just over an hour after walking into a hospital emergency room with a gunshot wound, Woodland police Capt. Derrek Kaff said in a news release.
Yolo County coroner’s officials were still attempting to locate the victim’s next of kin as of Saturday evening and had not released the man’s identity.
So far, no arrests have been made in connection with either homicide.
Friday’s shooting occurred at about 7:40 p.m, when officers were dispatched to reports of shots fired in the area of College Street and Oak Avenue, Kaff said. Witnesses also reported that two cars appeared to be in pursuit of one another, the occupants exchanging gunfire.
A short time later, residents in 1000 block of Gum Avenue and 800 block of Fifth Street reported seeing the vehicles in their neighborhoods, with possible suspects fleeing their vehicles and jumping fences behind the residences, Kaff said.
It was at about 8 p.m., 20 minutes after the initial gunfire reports, that Woodland Memorial Hospital staff notified police that the gunshot victim had been dropped off at the emergency room. He was pronounced dead at 9:15 p.m.
Investigators searching the Fifth Street/Gum Avenue area found one of the suspect vehicles abandoned in the 800 block of Fifth Street, as well as multiple shell casings both inside and surrounding the car, according to Kaff.
Meanwhile, police also continue to investigate the Wednesday morning shooting of Arnulfo “Happy” Bermudez Jr., a 31-year-old Woodland man who was fatally shot while jump-starting a friend’s car on Community Lane, his girlfriend told The Davis Enterprise.
Officers arrived to find Bermudez in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, which had crashed into a parked car not far from where the shooting occurred. He died at the scene.
Both incidents are being investigated by Woodland police and the Yolo County Gang Task Force, although neither has officially been labeled a gang-related crime.
Anyone with information about either of last week’s homicides is urged to call police at 530-666-2411.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene