Evelyn Waller: Multiple shootings kill any desire to stay in Modesto

A 25-year-old man is shot three blocks from our home in north Modesto. He was walking home from the Walmart shopping center about two blocks from his home around 10:30 p.m. He took five bullets to his torso and crumbled in the street, dying in the gutter.

My brother and I were in our van stopped at the light at Prescott and Rumble a few weeks ago when a scene from the OK Corral unfolded. Some gangsters started shooting at each other; it was broad daylight. Five or six scattered, all shooting; some were running backwards while firing. The poor folks at the dog park, where we were headed, began crouching behind their vehicles and calling 9-1-1. One shooter headed right for them but decided to change direction, thankfully.

There are still flowers and candles on the sidewalk for the woman shot on Rumble. Then there’s the still unsolved shooting death of a young man in his own front yard not far away near Robbie and Campbell. There was also a shooting in the apartment complex near us on Standiford a couple months ago.

This is north Modesto, not southside! What is going on? Is Modesto dying? The desire to remain here sure is.

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Evelyn Waller: Multiple shootings kill any desire to stay in Modesto."