Neighbor says she confronted Modesto Pine Tree Lane shooting suspects

A resident a couple of doors down from the west Modesto home where a man was shot to death by two intruders Sunday night said she confronted one of the men moments afterward, not realizing that the crime had just occurred.

The killing occurred shortly after 9:40 p.m., when two suspects brazenly forced a women and three children into a home on the 800 block of Pine Tree Lane house at gunpoint and began firing, police said.

The woman had just arrived home with her three sons – ages 1, 6 and 11 – when two Latino men in their 20s forced their way into the house, according to Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves. Once inside, the suspects fired several shots, striking an adult male victim who already was inside the home, police said. The man suffered from at least one gunshot wound. No one else was injured in the attack.

Detectives believe robbery motivated the shooting; they are investigating whether drugs or gangs also played a role, Graves said.

The neighbor, who asked that her name be withheld, said that not long before the shooting, her son and nephew alerted her to two men walking back and forth along the street and behaving suspiciously. The boys thought the men might be planning to steal a car that belongs to another of her sons.

When she went outside to confront them, the shooting already had occurred, she said, though she didn’t hear any shots. The man she encountered leaving the area was maybe 5-foot-10 and 160 to 170 pounds, the neighbor said, and “not fat, but solid.” He wore a black shirt, blue jeans, a white baseball cap and white Nike Air Force 1 shoes, which she said she recognized because her son just got a pair. He was clean shaven and in his late teens or early 20s.

“I said, ‘Is there a problem? Why are you by my son’s car?’” she said Monday morning, recalling the incident. “He said, ‘No, what the hell, why’d you think I was by your son’s car?’” Then he ran north on Pine Tree and turned right on Yellow Pine Drive, she said.

About this time, a son of the shooting victim came running outside, saying, “Please help, my dad’s been shot, my dad’s dead,” the neighbor said. “Me and my son ran up. I could see what happened and told my son to leave,” she said.

She said she didn’t enter the home because she didn’t want to disturb the scene. She could see the victim on the floor and his wife on the phone.

The victim’s son spoke with her son and nephew, the neighbor said, and told them the man in the black shirt was the one who shot his father.

The second man, whom the neighbor saw outside before but not after the shooting, was “a lot thinner, maybe 140 pounds, and a little shorter. He had on a red shirt with white block lettering and blue jeans.” He either must have run a different direction than his companion, she said, or was past her already when she came out.

Police said the two men, who had been waiting outside the home, fled from the scene on foot. Detectives who arrived on scene late Sunday night were getting set to talk to neighbors and witnesses beyond those inside the home.

Graves said the home was an intended target. The neighbor said robberies are rare in the neighborhood because residents are just scraping by, so there’s little of value to steal. But of her neighbors, who have lived there about a year, “you can tell they’ve got money.”

Monday morning, there were two new-looking jet skis on a trailer in the driveway, next to a nice-looking red 2006 Nissan Pathfinder. On the street in front of the home was a white 2004 BMW X5 sport utility vehicle. “They recycle their cars every couple of months,” she said.

The home also has a security camera above the front door, bars on the front windows and security doors on the front door and the door from the front porch into the garage.

Reflecting Monday morning on the “horrible” night before, the neighbor said she had conflicting thoughts. “I’m kind of blunt,” she said, noting that going outside to face the suspicious men might not have been the best idea. “If he had a gun, he could have shot me.”

On the other hand, she said, going out earlier might have changed things. “I feel bad. Maybe I could have scared them away, but if they were going to rob them, they would have just done it another day, another time.

“My kids are scared. They’re saying, ‘What if they’d shot you?’ It makes you want to be a gun owner a lot more. The kids want to move, they’ve never been near that before.”

Graves said Sunday night that she did not have information on the name or age of the victim or what specifically – if anything – was stolen from the home.

Family members and friends – many in tears – gathered outside of the crime tape as Modesto police personnel were conducting their investigation.

This story was originally published August 3, 2015 at 3:03 AM with the headline "Neighbor says she confronted Modesto Pine Tree Lane shooting suspects."