A town’s innocence and peace shattered
PLEASANT HILL, CA (Dec. 23, 2024) — One second you are driving steadily along Contra Costa Boulevard and thinking of the lunch date you are headed to with a friend and myriad other things, like parking.
And, in the very next moment, you watch the driver’s window of the car in front of you being shot up and its glass spraying as the driver of the immediately adjacent vehicle fires a steady stream of bullets into it. The sight of the shattering of glass and the popping sounds.
Then simultaneously an individual is observed appearing to crawl from the rear passenger door of the car that was struck as another person flees down the center median from the horrific scene.
That, in a nutshell, is what was observed transpiring prior to noon three days before Christmas near downtown Pleasant Hill. And, in turn, again representing another episode that again threatens to further rob the city as an oasis from society’s mounting ills that have plagued other larger nearby communities in a far more noteworthy manner.
Sure, a check of Pleasant Hill Police Department’s Facebook page with its updates of crime activity and cases handled by the agency, including its response to the rise in retail thefts and arrests of suspects during the holiday scene as well as the successful drug seizure, suggest Pleasant Hill is far from being immune from crime. So, its naïve to think there are not serious issues afoot here.
But the unexpected sight in broad daylight of gun fire, especially that occurring between two vehicles rolling through the heart of the city, seemingly has introduced a new concern into the equation, and is threatening to strip, somewhat, Pleasant Hill of a bit more of its long cherished small-town innocence.
The Dec. 23 episode at the intersection of Contra Costa Boulevard and Vivian Drive left at least one person being hospitalized, authorities said.
Accounts of the frightening incident that quickly flashed across media websites followed multiple calls to the Pleasant Hill Police dispatchers from witnesses, including one from this writer, reporting the shooting shortly after it happened.
Police reportedly found one of the cars involved five blocks north of the intersection. One of the occupants in the vehicle hit suffered a gunshot wound to the hand and was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Police said it was believed the two parties involved in the shooting knew each other and detectives were investigating whether a custody dispute was the possible motive for the altercation.
A traffic mess was left in the wake of the shooting as Contra Costa Boulevard was closed northbound at Ellinwood and southbound at Doris during the police investigation. No other injuries were reported, and it was unclear whether anyone was arrested.
So as the echoes of gunfire from this latest violent incident fade away like the closing hours of 2024, it begs the questions how Pleasant Hill will react going forward and how it can hold tight to its small town charm. What will define this community in the year ahead?
David Scholz
David Scholz is back in journalism as a freelance writer and photographer after nearly two decades in education. Prior to moving into teaching in 2000, he worked as a full-time journalist since 1988 for rural community and small daily newspapers in Central Ohio and Northern Nevada, and later in California with The Business Journal in Fresno and dailies in the Bay Area, including The Oakland Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle. More recently Scholz also worked in an editing, writing, and page layout role with the Rossmoor News.