City Council responds to Community Park shooting

PHOTO: Davis Police Chief Todd Henry addresses the Community Park shooting.

By Elina Hibel

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

At its weekly meeting on April 15, Davis City Council added an urgent item to the agenda: an update on the shootings that took place on Saturday, April 12. 

Three individuals were injured in the Community Park shooting, including two teenagers—one of whom is a Davis High student—and a 24-year-old. Their injuries are non-life-threatening.

A press release from Tuesday stated that the shooting does not appear to be random. An update from the police department released at 3 p.m. on April 17 stated that police found bullet casings from two different guns, suggesting there was more than one shooter. The update also indicated that the suspects are from outside the Davis community. 

After reviewing witness statements and tips, the PD released a description of one of the suspected shooters: a Black male adult, between 20-25 years old, under 6 feet tall with an average build. He was seen wearing a black hooded sweater, black pants, and a face mask.

The city council unanimously approved the creation of a subcommittee to meet with UC Davis Chancellor Gary May. “There’s some serious and immediate conversations that need to happen with the University,” Councilmember Josh Chapman said, referring to the shooting.

Davis Police Chief Todd Henry took to the microphone to address the incident and answer the Council’s questions. Multiple police officers were present as well. “[The investigation] is a top priority right now at the police department,” Henry said. 

Five officers have been assigned solely to the complex investigation. “If we had maybe 12 to 15 committed detectives it would be a lot easier just based on the size and scale of it,” Henry said. 

The PD is utilizing regional resources, such as the FBI. “We are absolutely capitalizing on all those relationships,” Henry said.

The shooting occurred on Picnic Day, an annual event which brings upwards of 70,000 people to the city. Henry said that Picnic Day brings “a lot of unsanctioned parties,” like the one at which the shooting occurred. 

The event was hosted by a UC Davis fraternity, which has hosted Picnic Day parties in Community Park the past few years. “It has not been sanctioned, but we’ve never had any issues or complaints, calls for service or any indication of violence,” Henry said.

The fraternity had obtained a noise permit for the event, but it indicated there would be a substantially smaller number of attendees. “We were trying to work with the fraternity to make sure that it was reasonable and that we had some level of communication,” Henry said. “Nobody anticipated what actually did occur.”

Oriana Wehner was one of many community members who spoke during the Tuesday meeting. Her 11-year-old son was at the Little League fields with his baseball team at the time of the shooting. She had dropped him off at the fields at 2 p.m., before driving to Walnut Creek for her 13-year-old child’s basketball game. 

“I got a call from the coach saying that he had my son with him and that there was a shooting across the street,” Wehner said. “I had to pull over to make sure I calmed down.” 

While her son did not sustain any injuries, the event was jarring. “He was saying his heart was beating really fast and that he was really scared,” Wehner said. “It was really sad because a lot of the boys and the little siblings on the team were all crying, and a lot of the moms were crying.”

“They didn’t really know what to do because they’ve never practiced in an open setting like that, like they do in school,” Wehner said. “I am hoping that the city does something to protect these kids in years to come,” she said.

Mayor Bapu Vaitla said he aims to make Picnic Day more family-friendly while ensuring that law enforcement and first responders can effectively manage the needs of the Davis community. 

“The primary solution for me is not just figuring out permitting procedures, it’s got to be a conversation with the university about what we do, about the fact that our population effectively doubles,” Vaitla said.

Henry said that the conversation around making Picnic Day safer and more family friendly has been ongoing throughout the years. “There’s been a variety of different initiatives; safety enhancement zones, pledges from different Greek organizations, you name it, something has been applied or tried to varying degrees of success,” Henry said. 

Henry said that the PD is reassessing their traditional Picnic Day strategy of “really trying to stay away from having to do arrests,” to achieve the objective of community safety.