Mother forced to shield sleeping child from bullets in Rio Linda drive-by
By Tori Apodaca , Rachel Wulff
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RIO LINDA, California (KOVR) — The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is searching for two, possibly three, suspects after two homes were shot up in Rio Linda early Wednesday morning.
A mother was forced to shield her sleeping child from gunfire as bullets blasted through her home. The shooting took place at approximately 4:30 a.m. along the 7100 block of Paladin Way.
The bullets flew just inches from children who were inside the homes, but no one was hurt. “We want to verify witness accounts and make sure we’re on the right track and looking for who is responsible,” Sheriff Sergeant Mike Matranga said. Surveillance video obtained by CBS Sacramento shows the mother ducking for her life, protecting her 4-year-old who was sleeping on the couch. They did not want to be identified.
“As soon as I looked out and they seen me, they started shooting at my house,” she said.
According to the victim, a fish tank stopped the bullets from entering her son’s bedroom.
She had no idea who the men were and added that they returned and shot at her neighbor’s house, shooting up the car in the driveway.
The neighbor said she had just moved in last weekend and thought this was a case of mistaken identity.
“I was not the targeted home but I just so happened to be looking out the window – and they [saw that] I seen them, I guess,” the mother said. “I don’t know what their intentions were.”
The victim counted 41 bullet casings. She called her own mother and asked her to go over after the shooting happened.
“Thank God the kids aren’t hurt and that my baby isn’t hurt,” the victim’s mother said of her daughter and grandchildren. “She’s my baby.”
Another neighbor who didn’t want to be identified showed CBS Sacramento more surveillance video of the shooting and described a black sedan driving up and parking before at least two people hopped out. A muzzle flash is clearly visible in the dark of night.
“They circled the block and came back a second time and then fired again and then took off,” the neighbor said.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office says it has pretty much no history of coming to that neighborhood in the past and it’s too soon in the investigation to have a motive. Practically every home on that street has kids inside, including the first home that was shot at.
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