Two people are dead and two others were wounded after a shooting in the early hours of Monday, November 2, along Jetty Road beside Moss Landing State Beach in Moss Landing, an unincorporated coastal community in Monterey County, California, the Monterey County Sheriff's Office said.
Source: Lookout Santa Cruz (Monterey County Sheriff's Office release)
The gunfire was reported just after midnight, and the sheriff's office said the shooting itself occurred shortly before 2 a.m. on the road adjoining the state beach, off Highway 1. Sheriff's deputies, California Highway Patrol officers and California State Parks officers all responded to the scene, where two people were found dead of gunshot wounds on the roadway between Highway 1 and the beach parking area.
Andres Rosas, a spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office, confirmed to Monterey County Now that two people died of gunshot wounds at the scene. A third person arrived at a local hospital with gunshot wounds, and a fourth victim was taken to hospital from the scene with injuries officials described as non-life-threatening. KION Central Coast, reporting the sheriff's office update on Monday afternoon, likewise put the toll at two dead and two injured.
Source: Monterey County Now
"No present danger" — but no motive, and victims not yet identified
Rosas said the Sheriff's Office does not yet know the motive and is still establishing what happened, and that investigators do not believe there is a present danger to the community because they do not believe anyone connected to the shooting is still in the area. The office has not been able to identify the victims, and Rosas said it had not yet determined whether the deaths would be classified as homicide, suicide or something else. No suspect description has been released and no arrest has been announced.
Detectives spent Monday processing the stretch of Jetty Road and the surrounding dunes for evidence. Local reporting from the scene described party debris, including red plastic cups and a portable toilet, along the road, and investigators were also examining a second nearby location where people had gathered, according to reports carried by Bay Area outlets. The sheriff's office has not confirmed what led up to the gathering or the gunfire.
A quiet harbour road that residents say has never seen this
Moss Landing sits on Highway 1 between Monterey and Santa Cruz, where the highway crosses Elkhorn Slough. It is a small working harbour community of fishing boats, seafood restaurants, marine research facilities and the state beach — a place locals describe as quiet at night. Mark Pastick, who has lived in Moss Landing for 35 years, had been sleeping on his boat and came across the scene at about 8 a.m. as he set out to surf, finding the road closed and law enforcement everywhere. "It's so quiet, nobody comes here," Pastick told Monterey County Now, saying he had not seen this kind of violence in his 35 years there. Another nearby resident, who declined to be named, told the paper she heard gunshots, women screaming and cars revving during the night.
California State Parks Chief Park Ranger Mike Dippel said the gate to Jetty Road is typically left open through the night. State Parks Police closed the gate after the shooting, at the sheriff's office's request, and Jetty Road and Moss Landing State Beach stayed closed for the rest of Monday while the investigation continued. A State Parks K-9 unit was among the teams working on Jetty Road on Monday morning.
Identifying the victims is the next official step, followed by the sheriff's office confirming the circumstances and motive. Detectives are still interviewing people who were in the area and reviewing what happened at the gathering near Jetty Road. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. Expect Jetty Road patrols to be stepped up and further updates as identifications are made.
Monterey County and the neighbouring Salinas Valley are home to a long-established Punjabi and Sikh farming community, and Highway 1 and Highway 101 through the county are everyday routes for Punjabi truck drivers moving produce out of the Salinas Valley, one of America's biggest vegetable-growing regions. A double killing on a beach road in a community this small is the kind of event that travels fast through the whole county, and residents across the valley will be watching for the sheriff's office's next update on who the victims were and what detectives believe happened.