A Sacramento County jury on Wednesday found a man guilty of first-degree murder for a 2022 car-to-car shooting in broad daylight that was captured on nearby security cameras.
The jury convicted Peter Van Phan, 30, for the October 2022 shooting death of 20-year-old Andy Van who was killed in a south Sacramento intersection.
Phan’s murder conviction included a special circumstance enhancement for shooting Van intentionally and committing the murder by firing a gun from a vehicle, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday in a news release. The conviction also included an enhancement for using gun to commit the murder.
At 12:54 p.m. on Oct. 27, 2022, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office received a ShotSpotter alert indicating at least two gunshots had been fired in the 6400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, just south of 47th Avenue.
A few minutes later, the Sheriff’s Office received a call from a passerby reporting there was someone in the area inside a crashed car who had been shot.
Deputies arrived at the scene and found a man, later identified as Van, suffering from at least one gunshot wound. He was sitting inside his car which had crashed into a fence, sheriff’s officials said.
Deputies began performing life-saving measures on the victim until medics arrived. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died from his injuries several hours later.
Van of Sacramento was driving an Acura that day. Prosecutors said video from nearby security cameras showed Van’s Acura being chased by a Mercedes.
Just before Van’s Acura crashed into a fence near 48th Avenue, an object that appeared to be a gun was extended out of the Mercedes’ driver’s window, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said the Mercedes’ license plate was captured on the video, and Phan was the registered owner of the Mercedes. Investigators determined Phan was in the same area at the time of the deadly shooting, prosecutors said, and Van had previously been involved in a dispute with one of Phan’s associates.
Sheriff’s homicide detectives arrested Phan nearly two weeks later. On Thursday, Phan remained in custody at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove.
Phan is scheduled to be sentenced June 12 in Sacramento Superior Court. Prosecutors said Phan faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Rosalio Ahumada writes breaking news stories related to crime and public safety for The Sacramento Bee. He speaks Spanish fluently and has worked as a news reporter in the Central Valley since 2004.