Questions linger over what led to shooting
CAMPBELL >> What’s known about a fatal shooting last week on a residential street in Campbell — the city’s first homicide in four years — revolves around an altercation that erupted in the middle of a roadway that ended with gunfire.
By the end of the brief clash the morning of Nov. 2 on West Sunnyoaks Avenue, 42-year-old Greg Cirimele was mortally wounded. Not long after, and a mile away, 18-yearold Nickolas Ammann was arrested at his home on suspicion of shooting him.
What remains unknown, at least publicly, is what set off the deadly confrontation.
Ammann currently is being held without bail in the Santa Clara County Main Jail on a murder charge. Cirimele’s family and friends have been memorializing the lifelong South Bay resident and San Jose State University alum who worked as a marketing and advertising executive at the time of his death.
When reached by phone, his mother, Kim Cirimele, referenced a Gofundme page honoring her son that as of Nov. 11 was nearing a fundraising goal of $90,000 to support his two young daughters.
“If you knew Greg, it was to love him. Greg was someone you could alway(s) rely on, trust and laugh with. His ability to cultivate deep relationships with others was one of a kind,” the page reads. “He created a safe space for you to share anything and everything with him — from exchanging
parenting tips, providing relationship advice or helping others at work or personally.”
On Nov. 2 around 10:45 a.m., Campbell police officers were alerted to a shooting in the 300 block of West Sunnyoaks Avenue. In an investigative summary accompanying the criminal complaint, police cited a witness who reported seeing a blue Saturn stopped in the middle of the eastbound lane, and then a man later identified as Greg Cirimele walk up to the driver side of the Saturn and “start throwing punches at the driver through the car window.”
According to police, the witness saw “the driver of the blue Saturn shoot three or four rounds” at Greg Cirimele, then speed away as Cirimele, hit twice in the chest, lay on the roadway.
He died about 45 minutes later at Valley Medical Center. According to Campbell police, the Nov. 2 shooting was the city’s first homicide since 2017, and the last homicide before that was in 2014.
Meanwhile, the witness dialed 911 and followed the Saturn, reading off the car’s license plate to police dispatchers. Using the plate information, Campbell police surrounded a home on Juanita Way, and within 20 minutes they arrested Ammann.
Police state that the witness identified Ammann as the shooter, and in subsequent searches of his home and car, they found loose 9 mm bullets matching the make of the bullet casings at the crime scene, and a spent 9 mm casing in his car seat. Investigators also reported finding a bullet hole “through the upper portion” of the driver’s door of his car.
A precise motive for the shooting, police said, “is still under investigation.” Ammann’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment Nov. 11.
Last week, over 100 people attended a vigil for Cirimele. His Gofundme tribute, noted Cirimele’s love of mountain snow sports and spending time in Lake Tahoe and emphasizes how his daughters “were the light of his life and the reason he worked as hard as he did on himself.”
“He was the one who always made everything more fun, always there to encourage you and to listen to you and to make you feel loved and special,” wife Jennifer wrote in a Facebook post after his death. “My heart breaks thinking about all of the future birthdays, graduations, weddings, grandchildren, small moments, big moments, sad moments that he will not be there for to share with our sweet little girls … This life will not be the same without you.”