Gunfire rings out on Fresno on-ramp. By the time it stops, woman is hurt; home, car also hit
Shots fired early Saturday on a freeway on-ramp in central Fresno left a woman injured, with rounds also hitting a home and a car in what the California Highway Patrol said appears to be a gang-related incident.
Highway Patrol and Fresno Police Department officers responded about 1:25 a.m. to gunfire detected by the ShotSpotter sensor system on the Van Ness Avenue on-ramp to eastbound Highway 180.
Officers found a 21-year-old woman who had been shot in the upper body, CHP spokesman Mike Salas said. She was taken to Community Regional Medical Center with life-threatening wounds.
An update on her condition was not available late Saturday afternoon, but Salas said she was rushed into surgery and was expected to survive.
There was also one round fired into a residence on the southwest corner of College and Franklin avenues adjacent to the freeway and an additional round into a vehicle parked there, the CHP stated.
No one else is believed to have been injured.
Evidence indicates two guns were used and “all indications (are) this shooting is gang related,” Salas stated in an email.
The incident was part of another violent night in the central San Joaquin Valley city, where shootings have risen sharply since the spring and prompted Fresno Police Chief Andy Hall to create a task force to address the problem he believes was sparked by the state’s zero-dollar bail policy for misdemeanor and other low-level offenders.
California enacted the zero-dollar bail policy as an emergency measure to limit the spread of coronavirus in county jails.
Two hours before the Highway 180 incident, two men in their 30s were shot and killed, and another was wounded after a drive-by shooting in southeast Fresno, police said.
The shooting happened about 11:45 p.m. Friday.
The men were identified by the Fresno County Sheriff-Coroners Office as Mark Desantiago, 33, and Francisco Arellano, 36.
Police said people were leaving the party when at least one person in a vehicle opened fire, striking three men.
All three suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
This story was originally published October 17, 2020 at 4:21 PM.
