Police search for 2 shooters in New Year’s wild gunshots

Two celebratory New Year’s Eve gunshots in the East Bay struck people as the bullets came down: one lodged itself in the skull of a 6-yearold girl in Oakland and another grazed the hand of a tourist at a house party in San Leandro on New Year’s Eve.

Another celebratory gunshot struck a parked car in Hercules, prompting the city’s Police Department to issue a warning in its daily police log.

When fireworks go off in the Bay Area, people might also hear the sounds of festive gunshots. Local law enforcement agencies say that when shots are fired, those bullets still have to come down somewhere.

“I just don’t think people realized the dangers and ramifications when choosing to celebrate the New Year with gunfire,” San Leandro police Lt. Isaac Benabou said in a news release

Wednesday.

When those shootings happen, police collect evidence and use ShotSpotter technology to triangulate where the sound of the shot came from, said Felicia Ainsthorpe, an Oakland Police Department spokeswoman.

The most critical of this year’s crimes, however, may prove near impossible to solve.

Doctors have determined it’s too risky to remove the bullet from the 6-year-old girl’s head, meaning investigators will be unable to test it and trace it to a firearm.

“But circumstances change,” said Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson, noting ever-evolving technology. “We don’t lose hope, we don’t lose sight that this could ever be solved.”

If an arrest is made, the accused could face either a misdemeanor or felony charge under the California Penal Code for negligently discharging a firearm. But which charge the suspect faces depends on whether the bullet strikes someone and if he or she has prior convictions.

In that case, courts might interpret a felony offense as a strike under the state’s “three strikes” law, prosecutors said.

“It really depends on totality of circumstances,” said Contra Costa County district attorney’s office spokesman Scott Alonso. “Generally speaking, if someone is on probation, it could violate probation terms. It’s always up to the judge.”

Animal abuser sentenced: A Hayward man accused of severely beating a 9-month-old puppy

“I just don’t think people realized the dangers and ramifications when choosing to celebrate the New Year with gunfire.”

for pooping in his house in 2017 was sentenced Thursday in Alameda County court, authorities said.

After Joshua Tadduc, 24, discovered the accident on Sept. 11, 2017, he pulled the dog down the stairs by her hind legs, took her to the garage and hit her in the face with a 6-foot wooden pole, he told investigators. Tadduc left the pit bull puppy, bloodied and injured, in the garage, where she stayed until the next day when Tadduc’s roommates found her and took her to the veterinarian.

Alameda County district attorney’s officials said the dog, named Aaliyah, suffered a fractured jaw and spent six hours in surgery to reconstruct