The Vallejo Police Department confirmed that two men were shot and another man was hospitalized after a Sunday afternoon sideshow featuring at least 300 participants led to an altercation.
According to VPD Public Information Officer Rashad Hollis, the sideshow took place Sunday near Springs Road and Rollingwood at 5:30 p.m. Hollis said the sideshow “wasn’t the largest we’ve ever seen but it also wasn’t the smallest.”
Hollis said that an altercation between a truck driver and someone participating in the side show “turned verbal and then physical,” leading the truck driver to suffer from at least one gun shot, but that his injuries were “non life threatening.”
Hollis added that thanks to support from the Solano and Napa County’s Sheriff offices, the sideshow was able to be cleared enough for officers to get the shooting victim to a nearby hospital, where he was treated with “non-life-threatening” injuries.
After the altercation, a number of sideshow participants burned the truck of the victim and looted a nearby 7-Eleven on Springs Road. The 7-Eleven is currently boarded up.
No arrests have been made from the shooting or the sideshow, but police are requesting that anyone with information on the incident come forward.
So what can be done to prevent side shows in Vallejo, which have occurred multiple times a year at different locations? Hollis said that the location near Lemon and Magazine streets is often used.
“We are currently trying to upstart our department with recruiting,” Hollis said. “That’s a major factor that would help our residents.”
In 2022 California Highway Patrol received a federal grant supporting the state’s redoubled efforts to crack down on reckless driving behaviors that continue to wreak havoc throughout the state.
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Building on the $5.5 million in the 2022-23 state budget for the CHP to carry out the Campaign to Eliminate Street Racing and Sideshows, the $1.5 million Sideshow, Takeover, Racing, Education, and Enforcement Taskforce (STREET) grant was aimed to help efforts to decrease the number of fatal and injury traffic crashes attributed to illegal sideshows, takeovers, and street racing, CHP officials said in 2022 statement.
In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2000 (Gabriel), making it illegal for a person to participate and/or engage in a motor vehicle speed contest or in an exhibition of speed in an off-street parking facility. The measure went into effect in 2023.
Hollis said he “believes” but isn’t positive that the sideshow participants that frequent Vallejo aren’t actually from Vallejo and come from other cities.
Police are asking that anyone with information on the Sunday sideshow come forward and visit the General Detective Division webpage at www.vallejopd.net/get_services/online_police_services/submit_crime_tips.