Rash of Shootings in Antioch Leaves Residents Shaken, Looking for Answers
ANTIOCH (KPIX) -- It has been a bloody week in the city of Antioch after multiple shootings left two people dead and several wounded, according to authorities.
Police aren't saying if the shootings are related, but residents say they are all connected by the world we live in.
There were a total of six shootings in less than a week.
The most recent shooting happened at Hillcrest Park on Sunday evening at what police described as a peaceful vigil. A group of gunmen drove up and began firing into the crowd.
Three people were hit -- a 17-year old juvenile and a man and woman, both in their twenties. Luckily, none of the injuries were life-threatening. That wasn't the case on Wednesday at the Sinclair gas station on Lone Tree Way.
In that incident, two men in a car got into some kind of argument with people in another vehicle and began shooting. Two victims ended up in the hospital with critical injuries. One later died.
On Saturday, a 36-year old man was found fatally shot on the sidewalk in the 5200 block of Travesio Way. Police say, so far, no arrests have been made in any of the crimes.
"It's all about being a gangster. And now they're showing rap videos, they all sound the same," said one young man who didn't want to be identified. "They're responding to what they don't understand."
He said young people are being influenced by what the see and hear everyday and that anyone who is slighted feels justified in taking a life as payback.
Charles Murphy moved to Antioch in 2009 to give his kids a better life and opened the Rivertown Veterans Thrift Store. But he says the town has changed over time.
"You know, being an older gentlemen, it's all right with us older generation. But the young kids, it's just scary," he said. "You know, you hear more about it this year. It's just been overwhelming, you know?"
The killing on Travesio Way was the city's eighth homicide. There were seven in all of 2020. Data shows most other categories of crime are actually down from last year, with only 62 juvenile arrests so far in 2021 compared to 169 in 2020.
But Ben Barnard said he still hears gun shots nearly every night and displayed a bullet he found outside his window as proof.
"It's this generation, they're growing up without male role models," he said. "They're just an angry, angry generation."
Resident Brenda Cato agreed, but said it's not fair to condemn young people when they are growing up with so little structure or opportunity.
"They end up playing dice in a parking lot at Quik Stop, or they end up being bored or selling drugs because they don't have anything to look forward to," Cato said. "They don't know what to do. What's next?"
That's the question the town is asking: what is next? Even if the shootings were not directly related to each other, they may all be the result of a common problem.
Antioch police in a statement said no far no suspects have been identified in any of the recent shootings.
