More than 30 shots fired into busy gas station in Fresno; victim ‘lucky to be alive’
Fresno Police are investigating a shooting early Sunday morning at a busy Arco gas station and ampm convenience store on Fresno Street in which a 24-year-old man was grazed in the mouth and lucky to be alive, Lt. Israel Reyes said.
“It doesn’t seem like he was the intended victim – at this point, we don’t believe that he was,” Reyes said. “He was just here pumping gas. Unfortunately, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was transported to Community Regional Medical Center – the injury was significant enough that he did have to go to the hospital, but he is in stable condition, and we’re lucky we don’t have a bunch of shooting victims out here.”
The department received two ShotSpotter reports around 12:13 a.m., the first a 20-round activation and the second a 16-round activation. While officers were en route to the scene at Fresno Street and C Street just west of Highway 99, dispatchers received multiple calls about a shooting victim.
The 24-year-old man was located in the 1000 block of Trinity Street, just north of the convenience store.
“Fortunately, he didn’t sustain fatal injuries,” Reyes said. “He’s lucky to be alive, to tell you the truth. That victim indicated that he was here at the ampm several minutes before, and we connected that shooting to this incident here.
“The initial information that we have is there were multiple customers here in the parking lot, pumping gas, coming in and out of the business when a dark-colored sedan pulled up here in the eastbound lanes of Fresno Street and began shooting into the parking lot. We had four vehicles that were struck by gunfire, including the business, the ampm, and the Subway right next door. We only have the one victim that was struck.”
There were other patrons at the ampm that might have left without speaking to police, Reyes said, and they are asked to contact Fresno Police if they have any information on the suspects at 559-621-7000.
This story was originally published August 1, 2021 at 6:42 AM.