Woman Shot Near Larkey Park in First Murder of 2017
On April 27, the first Walnut Creek murder of 2017 occurred, and the community was left in shock. Even though Walnut Creek does not experience many situations like this, the Police Department knew how to react.
“We always react very similarly when there is a homicide,” said Walnut Creek police officer Drew Olson. “Basically our entire detective agency gets involved in helping with the investigation."
“For this one, we did get assistance from outside agencies. We got assistance from our regional SWAT team,” he said. “They have members from San Ramon, Martinez, Pleasant Hill, BART, and our agency, so all those guys and gals were working together.”
On that Thursday at 1:30 pm, a woman was shot multiple times near the Lindsey Wildlife Museum. The shooter is allegedly a man whom she was romantically involved with in some way.
It is not immediately clear how they were involved, but apparently there are claims of domestic abuse.
After the shooting, the suspect immediately fled, and later that day, he was found holed up in his car near a gas station in Martinez.
A standoff between the shooter and the police proceeded that lasted over 18 hours.
“We actually had to get help from the Sheriff’s office because the standoff took so long that they had to call in the Sheriff’s office SWAT team to have the overnight shift try and talk him out of the car,” said Olson.
During the standoff, the suspect put a gun to his head and threatened to harm himself but eventually surrendered and exited the car with his hands above his head at which point he was arrested.
