Santa Rosa police have been busy investigating six shootings in the city over the last two weeks.
Half of the shootings have taken place in community parks around Santa Rosa.
Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Christopher Mahurin said while it is common for the department to respond to shootings, this spike is unusual. Even more so considering that while the shootings do appear targeted, none of the incidents seem to be related.
“Which then makes resources difficult to investigate six different shootings,” said Mahurin. “Versus maybe six shootings that have a connection with the same people involved.”
The shootings don’t show any signs of being retaliatory gang violence, Mahurin added.
Mahurin said that the department currently only has five violent crimes detectives on staff to investigate the shootings due to staffing changes. The department’s gang unit was dissolved recently to fill out its patrol units.
The department does have adequate resources to conduct thorough investigations despite the constraints, said Mahurin.
When the manpower is available, the department is sending extra patrols to the areas in the city that have seen an increase in violence.
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