On a bright sunny Monday morning, Nov. 2, Mark Pastick was getting ready to cross Jetty Road in Moss Landing over the sand dunes to go surfing at about 8am. Instead, he saw two bodies lying in the road in front of him and a host of law enforcement telling him to get away from the scene.
A shooting occurred just before 2am on Nov. 2, on the road adjoining Moss Landing State Beach, leaving two people dead and multiple people injured, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said.
Andres Rosas, a spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office, confirmed that two people died of gunshot wounds at the scene when sheriff's deputies, California Highway Patrol and California State Parks officers arrived.
At the middle entrance to the other side of the sand dunes, Pastick says he was unable to tell what injuries the men had from their appearance, but he presumes they were dead because they were not moving, and were lying in the middle of the road.
A third person also arrived to a local hospital with gunshot wounds, and Rosas did not confirm if they were alive or dead.
In addition, a fourth victim was taken to the hospital from the scene with unspecified non-life-threatening injuries. The Sheriff's Office has not yet been able to identify the victims, and has not been able to determine whether it was a homicide, suicide or something else.
A nearby resident who declined to give her name to avoid drawing attention from any potential criminal activity says that she heard gunshots, women screaming and cars revving last night. Pastick, who was in his boat sleeping by 10pm the night before, says he didn’t hear any gunshots.
“It’s so quiet, nobody comes here,” Pastick says, saying he hasn’t seen this type of violence in his 35 years of residing in Moss Landing.
Rosas says that the Sheriff's Office does not know the motive, and they are still figuring out what happened. He says that there isn't a present danger to the community because they do not believe anyone related to the shooting is still in the area.
The gate to Jetty Road was open through the night, and typically is, says California State Parks Chief Park Ranger Mike Dippel.
California State Parks Police closed the gate after the shooting, shooing away cars trying to pull in on Monday morning. An officer told an approaching driver that the road would be closed for the rest of the day.