2 dead, 2 hurt in Moss Landing shooting

All right, taking you live over to Monterey County where we expect the sheriff's office, investigators, detectives, all discussing an update about two people who were shot and killed at Moss's Beach Landing. Let's listen in. Okay, everyone good? Yep. Okay. Okay, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Andy Rosas. I'm a commander and public information officer with the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. With me today is Chief... Park Ranger Mike Dippel with California State Parks and we are here today to give a very brief overview on the situation here in Moss Landing. Let me back up just a second, spelling on the name A-N-D-R-E-S, it's actually Andres Rosas, R-O-S-A-S, Mike Dippel, M-I-K-E, last name D-I-P-P-E-L. So in reference to today's incidents, just before 2 a.m. on today's date, the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, along with California State Parks, as well as the California Highway Patrol, were dispatched out to Jetty Road in the community of Moss Landing, Moss Landing State Beach, for a report of shots that were heard. The deputies, California State Parks officers, and Highway Patrol did respond. Upon their arrival, they were able to locate two victims. Tragically, those two victims were declared deceased here on the scene. Shortly after, as this investigation continued, we learned that a third individual had arrived at a local hospital. That person was confirmed to have suffered from shots. Uh, we do not know the current status of that individual. A fourth person was transported to the hospital from the scene with non life threatening injuries. We do not have any more specific information on that individual either. At this time, our detectives are still processing this scene. It is an active crime scene. We do not have any specific information as to motive anything that happened. Names, ages, we have no information on whether these individuals knew each other. We have no details whatsoever. This is an active scene, and they are in the process of trying to determine exactly what happened. With that said, the Jetty Road area and Moss Landing State Beach do remain closed. That was at our direction, and California State Parks is assisting us with that. So this area does remain closed to the public until further notice. That is the information that I have at this time. I, again, am very limited as to what I can answer, but if anybody has any questions, we can take a try. Were the two people who were found outside here, what injuries did they suffer that caused them to be shot? We don't have that information at this time. So it's unknown if they were shot or not. Correct. We have two people that are deceased at the scene. Can you tell us if they were men? We don't want to release that information at this time. Can you tell us if they were people from our Central Coast area or visitors? That we don't know. Could you describe the scene? It sounds to us like there are two locations and one of them might look like a party scene. Could you describe what it looks like over there? So the crime scene itself is on Jetty Road. We are aware of a location that is in the area. We are processing that out of an abundance of caution as part of our investigation. At this time, we do not know if that's related to this incident. Any evidence that they were partying there or is this a place where people come often even when it's dated law to come and party? I could Couldn't tell you if this is a place that's commonly, you know, an area that's common for parties. Again, as I just explained here, I just answered, we are aware of that secondary location that was just described. We are processing it just in case, but we have nothing at this time that tells us or can confirm that these two locations are related. Connected to this question, were there any previous calls that you have received in this area for the... No. The only call that came in was a call of shots heard that was reported by a citizen. We have seen some residents say that late-night gatherings and even drugs on the beach or near the beach aren't entirely uncommon. Is that something you guys were aware of or something you're working to get on top of? Take an answer. I'll go ahead and turn that over to State Parks. Thanks for your question. Mike Dippel, California State Parks. I'm the chief ranger for Monterey District. Yes, we have a lot of popular beaches here along the Central Coast. State Parks, particularly in this district, has 100 miles of coast from Santa Cruz County down to San Luis Obispo County that we oversee. Many of our beaches are some of the most beautiful and popular beaches in the coast of California, and we do have people that come to gather and have parties. This beach does close at sunset, so these people were here after hours. Mike, I noticed that there's a gate at the entrance there. Would that gate have been locked? And thus, I mean, how did these people get in here? And then maybe if the gate was locked, I'm not sure if it was or not, but maybe that might have prevented this tragedy from happening. So we have many parking lots in our district. Some of them have gates, some of them do not. This particular gate, we do have a gate out by the highway. We do not close it routinely due to the amount of public access that's required. People coming into this park want to utilize for fishing and surfing early in the morning, and we do not have staff to get out here at that time, so the gate was open. In your investigation, did you find any weapons at all in the area? We don't have that information at this time. In your news release, you guys said you didn't believe there was any ongoing threat to the public. What was the rationale for saying that? Correct. At this time, we do not believe that there is anybody that was related to this, that is related to this, that is still in this immediate area, or that there was ever any threat to the surrounding community of Moss Landing. Can you say what leads you to believe that? The fact that there was nobody in the area that appeared to be a threat to the community. Any evidence this may have been a gang related? We don't have that information at this point. Again, we're very early in this investigation. It's very important that we not speculate as to what happened here. We do not have those details. This is going to be a lengthy investigation. Our detectives are doing everything they can to try to resolve this and try to get an idea of what is happening. For that reason as well, we ask the community that is watching and listening today that if at any point you have any information, whether it's something you know directly or something that you've been told that could be connected to this, Contact the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. Our number is 831-755-5111. You can remain anonymous when providing information to our agency. To clarify, when that third person arrived with gunshot wounds, they are dead? Are they dead? I'm sorry, what's your question again? The third person who arrived with gunshot wounds at the hospital, when did you say they got there? No, I stated that we do not know that person's status at this time. Oh, we don't know his status? Correct. Has the next of kin been notified? No. The first step would be to identify the decedents. That has not taken place. How long are you expecting the beach to be closed for? We don't have that. It's as long as our crime scene unit takes to process the scene and collect any evidence that they locate. Are they still on site doing that? They are, yes. Is it possible that there's a shooter still at large? There is a possibility of that. We have not said that that's not the case. We have simply said that we do not feel that there's an active threat to the Moss Landing community. For clarification, I thought I heard shooting. We don't know the wounds, the extent of the injuries. I mean, it was a shooting, and the deceased are dead as a result of being shot, correct? We have two fatalities, two fatalities that are confirmed. We do not know the circumstances under which those fatalities occurred. There are many scenarios in which firearms can be used. We don't know if you're listening carefully. We're not calling this a homicide. We haven't confirmed that this is a homicide or a suicide or any other type of death. We have not made that declaration yet. We are investigating the circumstances under which these individuals died as a result of gunshot wounds here at the scene. So people did die from gunshot wounds? We can confirm the people here, yes. The people that are on scene, yes. So the two people here died from gunshot wounds? That is correct, yes. Can you just tell us that again? Yes. How many people did you find dead? The individuals that were declared deceased appear to have died as a result of gunshot injuries. And the one at the hospital you're not sure of? Correct. So you're saying that it is a possibility that they're not willing to homicide, but they could have been maybe, you know, just having fun with fire or just been careless or... Correct. We don't know the circumstances at this time. What ages? We don't have that information, sir. The person that called in, did they report hearing a lot of gunfire, several shots? It was just multiple shots. Yeah, I don't have the number of shots that they reported. Rose, is there any chance that there was anything online, like a pop-up party that maybe dropped people out here? I couldn't answer that question. I just got one question for Mike. I mean, Mike, this is a popular... Area for bird watchers, hikers, bikers, moving forward, I mean, it just seems, you know, once it makes the news, any concern people, visitors should have to your state parks? No, like Commander Rosa said, we believe this is an isolated incident here to the incident that we're investigating. And as soon as the crime scene here is released and the area is deemed safe and clear of investigation, we will reopen. Can folks expect additional patrols over the next few days at least and what does that collaboration look like between you guys to keep it secure? So State Parks routinely comes out to Moss Landing, State Beach and all of these beaches as part of our our daily patrol and we work we work very closely with the Monterey County Sheriff's Office on that and we want to thank the Monterey County Sheriff's Office for helping with this investigation and we will increase our patrols in this area in the coming days to have a presence. Also to clarify, so the fourth person was transferred to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Were they transferred from this scene or from a different location? That was from this scene, and I don't know what type of injuries they had. All I was told was non-life-threatening. Were they on scene? I don't know where they were. I don't have that location. And to clarify, you haven't ID'd anyone? Do you guys, like, not IDing them publicly, or you yourselves have not been able to figure out who? A forensic autopsy will take place in order to attempt to identify the decedents in this investigation. Who's leading the investigation? Monterey County? State Parks? Correct. This is a Monterey County Sheriff's investigation. The California State Parks has asked us to conduct this investigation. Do you have witnesses who are cooperating? I don't know that. I don't know if there are any witnesses. I know you're not calling it a homicide, but what number of deaths is this for the county as far as 1-0-15? I don't have that information at this time. All right, guys, as information becomes available, we will provide that information to the public, again, very early in the investigation, and there's not much more that we can put out at this time, so we appreciate you coming out here, and we will provide you those details as they become available. Thank you. Is there any chance to have something in Spanish? Yeah, well, yeah, Spanish media will go ahead and provide a statement to you right now. All right, some updates from the Monterey County Sheriff's Office regarding A shooting overnight, very, very early this morning, they said around two o'clock this morning, the sheriff's office, the parks, the state parks department, as well as the California Highway Patrol all called to the area of Jetty Road. That's a part of the Moss's Beach landing community. They said when they got there, when they got to the scene, they found two people who had gunshot wounds. They were pronounced dead at the scene. A third person seemingly took themselves to the hospital, who also had some gunshot wounds. They said that they do not know their condition. There was also a fourth person taken to the hospital. They say that the spokesperson there from the sheriff's office, as well as the state parks department, telling us that they don't know what injuries they went to the hospital with, but that they call the status of their injuries non-life-threatening. So two people shot and killed. At the beach, two others in separate instances taken to a hospital to recover, and now an investigation is fully underway. Now, the sheriff's office says they don't really know all that much. They don't know how well these people all knew each other. They say they don't think there was a threat to the public. They said they're not ruling out the possibility that a suspect, a.k.a. a shooter, someone who might have been responsible for this, could still be out. But they say that they have enough details. Really, a lack of details, too, to still leave all these questions and possibilities open. They also mentioned, and this is not something we hear very often from first responding law agencies, law enforcement agencies, but they mentioned that they are being extremely careful with their wording. They mentioned that they, we may notice, that they're not calling this a homicide, they're not calling this a suicide. There's still so many details that they need to figure out to make sure that they can appropriately call what this investigation is, and they are not there. Just yet. So he made a point to say that the speakers that we heard from to say that. They're not using the word homicide. They're not using the word suicide just yet, but they're not ruling out those situations either. But again, updates from both the Monterey County Sheriff's Office as well as the California State Parks. CHP also involved as well as a supporting agency telling us the details, the few details that we have so far regarding two people shot and killed at Moss's Beach, Moss's Landing State Beach, which is now closed. As this investigation continues, two other people are hurt. They are still asking questions, still doing their interviews, still notifying the next of kin after they identify who these people are. We also have been showing you the picture all morning long here, and I'll show it to you now.