Police arrested a Southern California woman this week in connection with a shooting at an apartment complex in South Berkeley last month.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has charged the 23-year-old, from Vista in San Diego County, with burglary, gun crimes and several enhancements related to the Jan. 17 shooting.
Shortly before 2 that morning, the Vista woman and another woman forced their way into a fourth-floor apartment in a building on Adeline Street near Russell Street, at least one of them armed with a handgun, according to a news release from police Friday.
During a “dispute” that followed, the Vista woman and her companion followed two other women out of the apartment and into a stairwell, police said. Later, when the two victims were heading back into their apartment, the two alleged aggressors came into the same hallway.
BPD’s release did not indicate who they believe fired the shots, but alleged that either the Vista woman or her companion aimed the gun at one of the victims’ heads; that woman pushed the gun away, but the gunwoman took a step back and tried to shoot the victim, missing, but hitting someone else’s apartment. The women with the gun then fled, firing at the victims several more times before driving off in a car, according to the statement Friday.
Berkeley Police Department detectives got a warrant to arrest the Vista woman on Jan. 23 on suspicion of attempted murder and robbery as well as several gun crimes, police said. Oakland police arrested her Monday in an unrelated matter. The charges prosecutors filed Wednesday did not include attempted murder or robbery.
A spokesperson said BPD officers were able to find surveillance footage from the area that showed the Vista woman and her companion during the incident and as they fled, and that it “was not a random confrontation” — the two pairs of women had met before.
Featured image credit: Kelly Sullivan for Berkeleyside
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