WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Police are investigating a burst of gunfire that rattled a neighborhood Monday on the 700 block of Lincoln Street.
WPD Master Officer Charles Bailey said police responded to multiple calls regarding shots fired around 5:45pm. When officers arrived they found around 20 shell casings from what appeared to be a .40-caliber gun in the center of Lincoln Street, Bailey said.
“We heard one shot and then a burst of many shots,” said one neighbor who asked not to be named. “This is normally a quiet neighborhood and things like this just don’t happen around here.”
Police closed off about a block of Lincoln Street and combed the area for further evidence and video footage. Witnesses said they spotted a newer model charcoal gray Chevy Malibu with a male driver and a female passenger bolting from the area north on Lincoln Street toward Freedom Boulevard. Police said the shots might have come from a semi-automatic handgun.
Then, around 9:45pm someone fired seven shots into a home on the 100 block of West Beach Street. When they arrived, WPD officers found seven bullet shell casings outside a home.
Within minutes police got behind a suspected vehicle and a high-speed chase unfolded around town, including along Walker Street and Harkins Slough Road. Police eventually lost the trail of the vehicle.
However, a short while later a witness called police to say they had found a handgun on Walker Street behind Ramsay Park where the vehicle was spotted fleeing from police.
No injuries were reported in either incident, WPD spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said, which are still under investigation.
