A teenager found suffering fatal gunshot wounds on the Crosstown Freeway on Sunday was shot near a sideshow that overtook a Main Street intersection earlier that night, police said Monday.
Stockton Police Department officers found the 19-year-old, who investigators have not publicly identified, at 2:35 a.m. on July 2 near South Wilson Way and the Crosstown Freeway, southeast of downtown Stockton, according to a department statement.
The teenager and several other people were found inside a vehicle located in the eastbound lane of the Crosstown, near the Wilson Way exit, Stockton Police spokesman David Scott said.
Detectives believe the 19-year-old was shot around 2:30 a.m. near the intersection of East Main Street and Rendon Avenue, located about a block south of Sousa Park in south Stockton. The intersection lies about a mile and a half from where the teenager was found.
The teen died at a local hospital, according to the police statement. He was originally from Sacramento, police said. The 19-year-old’s shooting appears connected to sideshow activity that was happening in the area, the police department said in a separate statement Monday evening.
The stunt driving takeover took place just after 2 a.m. near Main Street and South Golden Gate Avenue, one block from Main and Rendon, the statement said.
“It’s safe to say that this was involved with sideshow activity,” Scott said. Police did not release the motive for the shooting, leaving it unclear whether it was accidental or intentional.
The sideshow may have traveled for multiple blocks along Main Street, fresh tire marks spiraling down Main suggest. Each intersection roughly between Golden Gate and Highway 4 was covered in tire marks Monday morning. Heavy tracks were evident on Main and Rendon, and on nearby Lafayette Street.
It’s not yet clear whether the teenager was directly participating in the sideshow. Detectives cannot confirm whether he was watching, driving or otherwise involved, Scott said. Sunday’s death marks the third fatal shooting to occur at a Stockton sideshow this year, according to law enforcement.
In May, another person was fatally shot during a sideshow at the intersection of Eighth and B streets, in the Kennedy neighborhood in south Stockton, according to Nicholas Goucher, San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.
An April homicide near California and Oak streets in downtown Stockton was also linked to a sideshow, Scott said. One resident living near the Main and Rendon intersection said Monday that around 2 a.m. the day before, she was awakened by loud revving sounds she believed was a sideshow.
“I was in a deep sleep, (then) I kept hearing the engines gunning,” said the resident, who asked not to be named due to safety concerns. Sideshows happen in that neighborhood roughly every other weekend, she said.