Northern California man held in shooting told police he mistook friends for strangers at bonfire
A Northern California man was arrested after he allegedly shot at two of his friends as they arrived at a bonfire he was hosting in a case of mistaken identity, according to the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said Monday that the 18-year-old was arrested at his home on the 10500 block of Schroeder Road, west of the city of Live Oak, following a dispatch before midnight Saturday about a possible car-to-car shooting.
When deputies and officers from the California Highway Patrol arrived, they came upon two people who had been fired upon as they pulled into the driveway of a friend’s house. The Sheriff’s Office said the duo was not injured but their vehicle’s back window had been shot out. They told deputies they had been invited to a bonfire and were friends with one of the property’s residents.
“Both victims, who we will not identify at this time, advised they were friends ... and had no idea why he would shoot at them,” deputies said in the release.
Deputies later contacted the bonfire host who told them he had fired on a car that arrived at his property. The Sheriff’s Office said that the 19-year-old admitted to shooting at the vehicle, thinking it was two people who had gotten into a fight with the man at Marysville Speedway. He told deputies that the combatants had threatened him during the altercation.
“When he heard a vehicle drive up into his driveway, he assumed it was those who threatened him, so he shot at them,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
The teen was arrested and booked into Sutter County Jail in Yuba City on suspicion of attempted homicide. He also faces a charge of destroying or concealing evidence.
He was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail and was expected to be arraigned Tuesday.
