Sand City Target shooting leaves two dead, police short-staffed, community shocked.

The events unfolded in broad daylight, in a crowded parking lot, while men, women and children pushed shopping carts in and out of Target in Sand City.

Two Sand City police officers were called to the shopping center Monday afternoon to make an arrest. They were told by Target security officers that William Spaits, 27, who was wanted in connection to a crime spree earlier that day, was about to leave the retail store.

A full parking lot of people continued to park, shop and load their cars.

Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo adds Spaits was suspected in a residential burglary in Pebble Beach and had purchased items in Marina with a stolen credit card earlier that day. The purchases Spaits allegedly made with the stolen credit card allowed police to know his whereabouts. When he made a purchase at Target, security officers alerted police.

Spaits had several outstanding warrants to his name, including a no-bail warrant for violating probation, Flippo says. But as of the Weekly’s deadline, the D.A. could not say what crimes were linked to those warrants.

In 2012, Spaits had been sought by Seaside police in connection to a burglary, evading a police officer, drunk driving and resisting arrest. He was a known drug user to local police, according to a local law enforcement official who spoke on background.

When police officers confronted Spaits, who was with 23-year-old Tina Money and 35-year-old Gregory Allen Warren, he was about to get into a vehicle, which in August had been reported stolen out of Salinas.

Police approached the vehicle, and after a brief interaction, shots were fired.

A woman, who declined to be named, says she saw someone in the back seat of the vehicle lean out the window, and seconds later the police returned fire and a cop went down.

Scanners crackled to life with the stunning report: “Officers down at Sand City Target.” Police officers from Seaside, Marina, Monterey and Sand City all rushed to the aid of the wounded officers, as did California Highway Patrol and Monterey Fire, among others.

Phone calls to Sand City Police Department both day of and in the aftermath went unanswered.

The gunfire grazed an officer’s neck. The officer was treated and released from a local hospital hours after the shootout. The other officer took bullets to the chest and shoulder, and was treated and sent home the following day.

“The important thing to all of us,” Flippo says, is that the officers survived.

As for the suspects, Money and Spaits were shot and killed. It is not yet known how many times they were hit. The third suspect, Warren, has been arrested. He was not injured and is booked in Monterey County Jail. He has been charged for violating probation, but not for attempted murder or weapons charges. He will be arraigned Thursday.

“It’s amazing with the amount of people and the amount of cars, and people going up and down, that no one else was hurt,” Flippo says.

Flippo says Money had six outstanding warrants, for crimes Flippo could not specify. Friends and family posted numerous messages on her Facebook page saying how much she would be missed. Some sent condolences to the daughter she left behind. Friends declined to comment further.

Following the shootout, the parking lot area in front of Target was closed for several hours, leaving customers’ vehicles there until 9pm. Authorities closed the area to collect evidence, interview witnesses and clean up blood.

Target surveillance video is being reviewed by investigators, and so far, Flippo says it gives a clear idea what happened and why the event escalated.

The investigation has been taken off the hands of Sand City police and given to the DA’s Office, which will also review if the police officers broke the law.

“We are looking at the whole situation,” Flippo says.

For now, Sand City police officers are left to recover from the deadly altercation, which marks the third and fourth crime-related death in the tiny town this year, a record number of violent deaths for a sleepy place known for having two large big box shopping centers, a strong industrial/arts character and a population of 341.

With a total of nine police officers sworn to protect and serve the small city, the shootout shrinks the department.

The morning after the deadly event, the police department’s parking lot was nearly empty, and the door to its office was closed.

Just outside of the front door a sign reads “Police officers work Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm,” followed by a parenthetical: “Depending on staff availability.”

Nic Coury and Sara Rubin contributed to this report.