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Shooter scares Sequoia neighborhood
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Neighbors in the 700 block of South Sequoia Avenue were traumatized Friday afternoon when they heard one gunshot and then saw three teens running by their homes  – one with a black semi-automatic hand gun.

One man said he was just getting home from work at about 4:30 p.m. when he saw three males in their late teens walking north on Sequoia Avenue.  He said they were in a yelling match with another man down the block.  Standing on the sidewalk , one of the three drew a gun from his waist band and pointed it at arm’s-length in the direction of his adversary.

He noted that the man involved in the argument was goading the shooter by opening up his arms in a welcoming gesture, leaning backwards  and yelling, “Come on!”

Once the homeowner got his car into his garage he said he heard a muffled pop from the middle of the street where police later found one expended .45 mm round on the asphalt.

A resident just up the block said she, too, heard the shot but noted that it sounded like a gun that had a silencer attached – it wasn’t very loud.

When she went out to investigate,  she saw the trio running within 12 feet of her front door in a northerly direction.  She said they went around the corner and disappeared.  Manteca Police responded to the “shots fired” called with a half dozen patrol and undercover cars.

Officers quickly located two individuals on Locust Avenue who matched witness descriptions, but a roadside lineup cleared them from any involvement.

The woman resident said she had a friend standing outside her front door who shouted, “Oh, my God, he’s got a gun – get in the house.”

She said they ran into the garage and couldn’t get the garage door down fast enough.  “It was just nuts – normally my kids would be in the front yard playing.   All I saw was a gun, a shirt and a shaved head,” she said.  “It was broad daylight when kids are still coming home from school.”

She added that the man with the gun turned around toward the duplex down the street, like he was going to shoot again,  but chose instead to run around the corner. “I wanted to scream but no words would come out,” she said.  There were four adults and one child, five years old at her home at the time.

The woman said she would have recognized these individuals had they been from the neighborhood, adding she had never seen them before.

The shooter was believed to have taken aim at a duplex diagonally across the street from where he was standing.  Police interviewed a half dozen witnesses and talked with men gathered down the block at what was believed to be the target house.