Unexplained Fourth of July Drive-By Shooting
Last Sunday night, as people were shooting off fireworks at Collingwood and Matson Streets in Sacramento, California celebrating the fourth of July, two people were shot during a drive-by shooting. Both victims were taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
Sacramento police don’t know what prompted the shooting, as there hadn’t been a prior altercation. The shooters remain unidentified.
If police find and arrest the suspects, prosecutors have a few options.
They can charge the defendants with Penal Code 12034 PC California’s drive-by shooting law, with attempted murder (if the prosecution can prove that the shooters had the “specific intent to kill” the victims), with Penal Code 246 PC California’s law against shooting at an inhabited dwelling (if the victims were standing outside a home), and/or with Penal Code 246.3 PC California’s law against negligently discharging a firearm.
Depending on the circumstances, the penalties range from a misdemeanor with no mandatory jail time to a felony subjecting the defendants to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The most likely charge will be Penal Code 12034 PC California’s drive-by shooting law which carries a maximum seven-year state prison sentence.
