SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- The father of one of two Vallejo teenagers arrested for the brutal beating of a city worker last week was shot to death outside his Fairgrounds Drive home overnight.
Police are investigating whether the slaying is connected to the crime. Matthew Hicks' sister, Perlie, said she does not know why her brother would be targeted.
“My brother just was at my house. He never told me he had any kind of problems” with anybody, she told KCBS reporter Holly Quan.
Police called to the 400 block of Fairgrounds Drive above Interstate 80 around 12:30 a.m. suffering a gunshot wound to the head.
His death is Vallejo’s second murder of the year. Early Saturday, a man was killed outside a liquor store.
The two killings are part of a wave of violence that includes a triple shooting on Saturday, in addition to the two crimes caught on surveillance tape last week.
Hicks’ 17-year-old son was arrested in connection with the brutal beating of a city worker near Vallejo High School last Monday. No one has been arrested for the shooting of an ice cream truck driver on Wednesday outside a daycare center.
Perlie Hicks laid the blame for the violence on Mayor Osby Davis, saying he and other city leaders needed to do more to ensure public safety. “The people voted the mayor in for a reason, and Osby need to do his work.”
The Vallejo Police Department recently laid off several officers, and more layoffs are likely in the summer.
City Councilwoman Erin Hannigan noted Vallejo has not seen more crime than other cities its size, despite the timing of all the recent violence.
“Crimes like these occur in cities all over the country, all over the Bay Area. It just happens that they happened within a short period of time here in Vallejo.”
“It remains to be seen if this trend continues and what we need to do then to move forward should it continue,” she said, including revisiting a decision for more cutbacks in public safety.
KCBS' Holly Quan reports
(jro)
E-Mail Story
Print Story
DW.pageParams = {
siteId: '255'
};
DW.clear();
DW.trackClicks();
