Court records indicate drug motive in mobile home park shooting
Detectives believe suspects were armed, meant to complete illicit drug transaction
Recently unsealed court records offered a glimpse into the events surrounding a June 1 shooting and how investigators can try to piece together what happened with cell phone records when those involved aren’t cooperating.
The victim was a passenger in a black Chevrolet truck near an entrance to Mulberry Mobile Home Park in the 25000 block of Hawkbryn Avenue when two suspects “wearing ski masks, armed with semiautomatic pistols,” approached their car parked south of Wabuska Street.
The suspects fired into the truck, striking the victim twice in the torso, and then fled the area in a gray sedan headed toward Wabuska and Wiley Canyon Road, according to the investigator’s report.
The parties involved indicated they knew each other because the shooting victim sold brand-name clothing.
However, based on their electronic surveillance, detectives believe the two were armed and at the mobile home park to complete an illicit drug transaction, according to records available at the Santa Clarita Courthouse.
Using sophisticated tracking, investigators were able to identify specific locations where parties involved in an incident are as well as time ranges for those stays, according to court records, which was part of the tracking in this case.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials declined to comment on the status of their investigation Thursday and whether anyone has been arrested in connection with this shooting last summer.
Immediately after the incident, the owner of the truck drove his lone passenger, the victim, to the emergency room at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, where the victim was treated for gunshot wounds, according to an account of the incident from detectives.
According to detectives, the driver then parked his vehicle at a “discreet location” in the parking lot, recovered a firearm from his vehicle and then “threw it” in an unknown direction, according to court records.
“After attempting to conceal the evidence, (the driver) left his vehicle and returned to the emergency room, where he was detained by responding deputies without incident,” according to a court
document associated with the investigation.
Following a subsequent search of the area, investigators recovered a firearm with blood on the pistol grip and one live 9mm round in the chamber and six more in a 10-round magazine, according to the court records.
Deputies ultimately recovered two expended 9 mm rounds in the bed of the truck as well as “numerous” 9mm shell casings at the scene of the shooting on Hawkbryn.
The driver was later arrested on suspicion of possessing an unregistered firearm and attempting to conceal evidence.
However, Sheriff’s Department custody records available online indicate the driver was not booked into custody or charged with a crime as of this story’s publication.
The driver’s truck, which was peppered with bullet holes in the shooting, was impounded by deputies as evidence.
The victim’s family told station deputies on June 2, while the victim was still in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, that the victim sold items online through a platform known as Offerup.
The previous day, the victim and the driver were seen leaving their home with a grocery bag full of clothes that were spilling out.
On June 5, an attorney claiming to represent the victim told detectives her client did not wish to make a statement regarding the incident, according to a warrant request.