Modesto homicide victim was mother of two children. Suspected double killer also dead
The man suspected of killing a man in San Jose and a woman in Modesto on Tuesday night has died after police shot him following a more than seven-hour standoff, San Jose police reported.
Michelle Rose Gonzales, 29, was shot outside her home in the 500 block of Ramsey Drive, northeast of Union and McHenry avenues, at about 9:20 p.m., according to Modesto police. She died at the scene.
One of Gonzales’ children called 911 to report the shooting, according to a press release.
Neighbors told The Bee they heard the sound of gunshots Tuesday night but thought it was fireworks.
“We just heard screaming,” said Ivy Wagner, another neighbor. “There was a lady screaming, ‘No.’ I heard a man scream, ‘I didn’t do it.’”
She later heard a child screaming loudly, “Mom’s dead.”
Her 13-year-old nephew would go to the house to play with the mother’s 9-year-old child, but Wagner said she didn’t know the family.
According to Modesto police, officers quickly identified the suspect and learned he was also a suspect in a homicide that occurred in San Jose at 7:11 p.m.
The suspect fled Modesto after allegedly shooting Gonzales and went back to the Bay Area.
Just after 11 p.m., the San Jose Police Department’s helicopter spotted the suspect’s vehicle on Highway 101.
The California Highway Patrol responded to assist and an approximately hourlong pursuit ensued, during which the suspect fired shots at officers, according to San Jose police.
A woman and two children were in the car with the suspect but he let them out at some point during the chase, according to The Mercury News of San Jose. Authorities haven’t released the relationship between the suspect and the woman and children.
Just before midnight, the suspect stopped in the 100 block of Bendorf Drive in San Jose and ran from his vehicle, again firing rounds at pursuing officers, according to San Jose police. The suspect barricaded himself at a home on Bendorf, where he remained for several hours Wednesday morning.
A tweet from the San Jose Police Department said some residents in the area were evacuated “due to additional shots being fired by the suspect during the barricade. He was shooting at Officers and is armed and dangerous.”
No officers were injured in any of the shooting incidents.
Just before 8 a.m., San Jose police reported the incident resulted in an officer-involved shooting after the suspect “pointed a firearm at Special Operations personnel.”
At 11 a.m., San Jose police reported the suspect had died at the hospital.
This is Modesto’s fifth homicide of this year.
Neighbors said Gonzales was shot in front of the home where she lived with her two children. One neighbor thought the suspect was the father of the youngest child.
“They were always outside with the kids,” a neighbor said.
Neighbors said the woman’s body was lying outside the home, behind a car, for hours as authorities investigated.
During a press conference in San Jose late Wednesday morning San Jose police Sgt. Christian Camarillo said the suspect had been involved in some kind of family dispute prior to the homicides, but had no additional details.
He called the situation “a very tragic series of events” perpetrated by a “very, very dangerous individual.”
“This did not end the way we wanted it to,” Camarillo said. “This suspect kind of sealed his fate when he came out and pointed a gun at our police officers, a gun that he had fired on multiple occasions.”
.jpg "DF Ramsey shooting 2 (1).jpg")
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 8:03 AM.
