Airbnb bans ‘party houses’ as 5 killed in US gun violence
Airbnb’s chief executive said the company will ban the use of listings as “party houses” after a shooting at a Halloween event held at an Airbnb rental home in California killed five people.
Brian Chesky said his company was expanding manual screening of “high risk” reservations and will remove guests who fail to comply with policies banning parties at Airbnb rental homes.
He also said the company was forming a “rapid response team” for when complaints of unauthorised parties come in.
“We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable,” he wrote on Twitter.
The shooting on Thursday night sent about 100 terrified partygoers running for their lives in the San Francisco suburb of Orinda.
The four-bedroom home had been rented on Airbnb by a woman who told the owner her dozen family members had asthma and needed to escape smoke from a wildfire, a source told the Associated Press. A fire burning in Sonoma County about 97 kilometres north of Orinda earlier in the week polluted the air over a wide area.
The owner was suspicious of a one-night rental on Halloween and before agreeing reminded the renter about the no-parties policy.
The owner, Michael Wang, said his wife got in touch with the renter on Thursday night after neighbours contacted him about the party. The renter said there were only a dozen people at the home but Mr Wang said he could see more people on video from his doorbell camera.
“We called the police. They were on the way to go there to stop them, but before we got there the neighbour already sent us a message saying there was a shooting,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. No arrest has been made and there was no immediate word on a motive for the attack. Two guns were found at the property, authorities said.
Three people, all from the Bay Area, died at the scene and a fourth died at the hospital, authorities initially said. The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office identified them on Friday evening as Tiyon Farley, 22, of Antioch; Omar Taylor, 24, of Pittsburg; Ramon Hill Jr, 23; and Javin County, 29. The sheriff’s office identified a fifth victim, Oshiana Tompkins, 19, of Vallejo and Hercules, late on Friday night, saying she died at a hospital.
Taylor’s father, Omar Taylor Sr, said his son was hired to play music at the party.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” he told The East Bay Times newspaper.
Laneisha Epps, his stepmother, told KGO-TV, that the family was devastated.
“I personally think this was a senseless, careless act,” Ms Epps said. “Music and DJing was his happiness – I don’t even think he was going in thinking there was trouble or anything.”
Omari Taylor told KGO that his brother worked as a DJ to help support his young daughter. “He was a good man. If he was here right now, he’d want everyone to stay strong,” Mr Taylor said.
Other people were wounded by gunshots or injured in the panic that followed, authorities said.
The party at the four-bedroom house apparently was advertised on social media as an “Airbnb mansion party”.