In the first six days of March there have been five shootings in Kern County, three of which have been deadly.
Here is a recap of the shootings within the first five days of March:
On March 2, 18-year-old Da-Leon Williams and his girlfriend Tatiana Simon were shot in their apartment on Q St. near 40th St. in Bakersfield with two young children inside. The children were uninjured, Simon suffered major injuries and De-Leon died from his injuries.
On March 4, Victor Palomo, 37, was shot and killed on Freemont St. near 12th St. in Delano. The suspect Robert Dominguez, 40, was arrested for his murder later that afternoon. He was booked into the Kern County Jail for homicide and is currently being held without bail.
Also on March 4, a man was taken to the hospital by his girlfriend with minor injuries after being shot in the area of Gage St. and Flower St. The Kern County Sheriff's Office was called to the hospital to investigate. KCSO officers were able to find evidence of a shooting on Gage St. and Lincoln St. The investigation is ongoing.
On March 4 around 9:57 p.m., Eraldo (Eddie) Castro was shot and killed out of the Fastrip on Fairfax Rd. & Auburn St. Bakersfield Police said the shooting happened after an altercation with unknown subjects. BPD arrested brother Victor Quintero, 25, and Joel Quintero, 26, for conspiracy to commit murder the following day.
On March 5, a man was shot in the area of Sperry St. and Garber Way. According to KCSO, a man was sitting in his car in his driveway when another vehicle pulled up behind him and started shooting. The victim was able to back his car into the suspect vehicle. The suspect vehicle then took off. The victim was taken to Kern Medical with moderate injuries. The investigation is ongoing.
The ongoing violence was enough for Bakersfield Police Chief Lyle Martin to speak out after two incidents at the end of February and beginning of March involved children.
The first incident included the death of 5-year-old Kason Guyton after he was shot in a drive-by shooting. Then, days later the homicide on Q St. near 40th St. had two children in the home at the time of the shooting.
He said, "The Bakersfield Police Department will thoroughly investigate these attacks. We will pursue all leads. I have directed my personnel to use every legal means available to bring the murderers to justice. Additional officers are working to investigate these murders and to suppress all criminal activity by the groups responsible. I call upon this community to join us in seeking justice for these victims and to stop senseless gun violence that are traumatizing and killing our city's children.
All of these shootings have taken place during what is supposed to be a "Season of Peace." In November, local community leaders called for an end to the violence until January1st, but shootings did occur during that time too. On January 21st community leaders held another meeting to call for peace until March 31.
