Modesto police investigating fatal shooting near Coffee and Floyd

Modesto police are investigating a fatal shooting on Thursday night a few blocks southeast of Floyd Avenue and Coffee Road.

The shooting occurred at the same Vera Cruz Drive fourplex where two teenagers were shot to death a little over a year ago.

At about 8:30 p.m. Thursday, officers were called to the 2400 block of Vera Cruz on a report that someone had been shot, according to Lt. Rick Armendariz of the Modesto Police Department.

When officers arrived, they found a male victim believed to be in his late teens or early 20s on the ground near the stairwell of the fourplex.

Emergency responders attempted CPR. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, and later pronounced dead.

The suspect, or suspects, had fled the scene before officers arrived. There were conflicting reports of the number of people involved, and whether they were in one or two cars.

A neighbor who lives about a block away said she heard three shots, but arrived too late to see anything.

While officers were canvassing the area for suspects, officers received a report that a woman arrived at nearby Memorial Medical Center suffering from stab wounds.

She was in surgery late Thursday night suffering from critical injuries.

Armendariz said police are investigating whether the two incidents are related, but said it was too early to draw that conclusion. He did not immediately know where the stabbing took place.

Neighbors at the shooting scene Thursday night said they were tired of the violence in the area and fearful that more people, especially children, could get hurt.

On Feb. 10, 2012, Rolando Luna, 15, and Andrew Ensey, 19, both of Modesto, were hit by gunfire. Luna was pronounced dead at the scene. Ensey was critically injured but died the next day.

Two men — Nicholas Spangler, 27, of Ceres and Robbie Blackwell, 21, of Modesto — face murder charges in that case. They are scheduled to be in court on March 26 for a preliminary hearing.

They remain in custody in Stanislaus County Jail.

2013 Stanislaus County Homicide Map

This story was originally published February 14, 2013 at 9:13 PM with the headline "Modesto police investigating fatal shooting near Coffee and Floyd."