KING CITY, Calif. — A night of celebration turned to unimaginable tragedy when gunmen opened fire at a residential gathering in this small California city, killing four people and injuring several others, the authorities said on Monday.
The burst of violence erupted around 8 p.m. on Sunday as a party was underway at a house on Russ Circle, a quiet residential street in King City, about 170 miles south of San Francisco in Monterey County.
According to the King City Police Department, three unidentified men arrived at the home, exited a vehicle parked nearby, and indiscriminately opened fire on people standing in the front yard, spraying the area with gunfire before fleeing the scene.
When the barrage of gunshots finally fell silent, three men lay dead in the yard from bullet wounds, police officials said. A fourth victim, a woman struck by the gunfire, was rushed to a nearby hospital where she too was pronounced dead.
Three other men who had been shot were transported to a trauma center in the city of Salinas, about 25 miles away, where they remained hospitalized on Monday in unknown condition, the authorities said.
Investigators have not yet determined a motive for the mass shooting, which shattered what should have been a festive evening gathering among friends, family members and neighbors.
It’s an absolute senseless violence that has really rocked our community,” said King City’s interim police chief, Keith Boyd, in an interview. “Our residents expect to be able to celebrate together safely, but this terrible incident took that sense of security away, at least for now.”
The names of the victims were being withheld pending notification of relatives, officials said.
Police said they had made no arrests so far related to the shooting, but investigators were poring over evidence from the scene and canvassing the neighborhood for any potential witnesses or surveillance video that could help identify the suspects.
The shocking burst of violence has left the small agricultural city of about 14,000 residents reeling. In the hours after the shooting, distraught loved ones of the victims gathered at the city’s small community hospital, desperately awaiting news on their conditions.
King City, located in the fertile Salinas Valley, is known for its fields of vegetables and vineyards. Major crimes like Sunday’s shooting are extremely rare occurrences in the community.
“This was a horrific incident that has deeply impacted all of us,” said Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni. “We will do everything we can to support the investigation and ultimately achieve justice.”
By Monday evening, a makeshift memorial with flowers, candles and handwritten messages had sprouted on the street corner near the site of the shooting, as the community struggled to make sense of the tragedy in its midst.
