UPDATE: The teen shot Thursday afternoon at an East Davis apartment — reportedly an accidental shooting by his brother — has died in what Davis police are calling a “horrible tragedy.”
Jerred Vargas, a 19-year-old senior at Davis High School, passed away several hours after arriving at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento with a gunshot wound to his chest, Deputy Police Chief Paul Doroshov confirmed Friday.
“It’s almost surreal. He was only 19,” Doroshov said. “It’s horrible for the whole family.”
Doroshov said police are conducting their probe into the shooting, reported at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday as a “male shot in the chest, accidental gunshot by brother,” at the Tuscany Villas Apartments, 2526 E. Eighth St., according to the Davis Police Department’s online police bulletin.
“That’s the information we got initially,” Doroshov said. “But it will be a pretty substantial investigation. Whether or not it was an accident, you want to make sure you’ve got that right and you haven’t missed anything.”
Jarred Vargas Jerred Vargas, a 19-year-old senior at Davis High School, passed away several hours after arriving at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento with a gunshot wound to his chest. Courtesy photo
No arrests have been made, and Doroshov said the matter likely will be forwarded to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office for a decision regarding further actions, if any.
The brother, who also lived at the apartment, “has been fully cooperative with us throughout the investigation thus far,” Doroshov added. He disclosed that the firearm was a handgun, but further details such as how the shooting occurred or how the gun was obtained have not been released.
However, “we don’t have any evidence at this point suggesting it was illegally owned,” Doroshov said. Several other people also were inside the apartment at the time, but it remained unclear on Friday how many may have witnessed the shooting.
An autopsy to confirm Vargas’ cause and manner of death will be conducted next week, Yolo County Chief Deputy Coroner Gina Moya said Friday.
Meanwhile, the Davis Joint Unified School District has dispatched teams of crisis counselors not only to the Davis High School, but also to campuses throughout the city to offer assistance to both students and staff, district spokeswoman Maria Clayton said.
“We know he (Vargas) had friends and siblings in other places,” Clayton said. The counselors “are going to be on hand as long as they’re needed.”
Clayton said Vargas began attending Davis schools as an eighth grader at Harper Junior High after moving here from another district.
Original story:
A 19-year-old man was critically injured by gunfire Thursday afternoon at an East Davis apartment, the nature of the shooting incident still under investigation as of that night.
The Davis Police Department’s daily bulletin posted online Friday morning described the incident as a “male shot in the chest, accidental gunshot by brother,” reported at about 3:30 p.m. at the Tuscany Villas Apartments, 2526 E. Eighth St.
Lt. Art Camacho said the victim was transported to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where he remained in critical condition Thursday night.
Camacho did not disclose Thursday where on his body the teen was shot or with what type of firearm, nor would he say whether the shooting appeared to be accidental or a suspected crime.
“We are ruling nothing out at this early stage of the investigation,” Camacho said. One other person who was inside the apartment at the time “is cooperating with detectives.”
A resident of Tuscany Villas, Joshua Lee, said in an email to The Enterprise that he witnessed the shooting victim being loaded into an ambulance, and that he appeared to have a wound to his chest.
“I hope he makes it through. Nice kid,” Lee said. He added that he became aware of the incident after hearing shouting, then sirens, followed by the sight of police officers approaching the apartment complex with their guns drawn, shouting commands.
Lee said he immediately called his wife, instructing her to wait before bringing their children home from school.
“I didn’t want them to get caught in a gunfight while pulling into the parking lot; I wasn’t sure what was happening,” Lee said. “A few minutes later I looked and they were transporting him from the apartment.”
The scene investigation remained active several hours after the initial call, with yellow crime-scene tape surrounding the two-story apartment unit and several officers standing guard outside apartment as they waited for a search warrant to be obtained. Several items of what appeared to be clothing could be seen lying on the entryway floor through the open front door.
More information will be added to this story as it becomes available.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene