Woman shot to death in San Luis Obispo; gunman surrenders

Correction: An earlier version of this story said Christopher Shumey was arrested on suspicion of assault with a firearm against a peace officer. He was also arrested on suspicion of murder.

A woman was shot to death just after 2:30 p.m. Saturday in a residence at Beach and Buchon streets in San Luis Obispo, according to the San Luis Obispo police.

The 34-year-old suspect, Christopher John Shumey of San Luis Obispo, was arrested after he allegedly fired a shotgun at police. The victim, 65-year-old Arroyo Grande resident Karen Shumey, was the suspect’s mother, police said. He lived at the residence on 1505 Beach St.

The incident began after Karen Shumey visited her son Saturday afternoon, and they had an argument, police said. When she returned about 2:30 p.m., Christopher Shumey allegedly shot and killed her on the upstairs landing outside the front door.

Several residents in the area interviewed by The Tribune said they heard a muffled bang around 2:30 p.m., and screams from a woman. Then a second shot went off, and the screams stopped, they said.

Police arrived on the scene minutes after the first shots were fired. The suspect fired a shot at the first squad car on the scene from inside the second floor, said San Luis Obispo Police Chief Deborah Linden. “As they approached, the suspect fired at them” through a closed window, breaking the glass, she said.

The two officers quickly took cover and then began talking with the suspect perched in the second-floor apartment, police and witnesses said. The officers then persuaded the suspect to throw his shotgun onto the street, police said. After doing so, he jumped out of the window and gave himself up. Officers then secured the apartment and found the body of the woman who had been killed on the upstairs deck.

Mike Radakovich, 34, who lives across the street from the scene of the crime, said he was inside his house when he heard the first shot. “We heard screaming. I mean really screaming,” he said.

When he went outside to see what was happening, he heard the second shot. After the “second shot, the screaming stopped,” he said. Then a police car pulled up across the street, and a third shot went off, he said. “It was SUPER crazy, you could feel that it was close,” he said of the shot. The slug, he said, lodged itself in the side of his house.

Linden, who said she thought Saturday’s homicide was the city’s first in four years, said this kind of crime is not normal for the community.

Christopher Shumey was arrested on suspicion of murder and assault with a firearm against a peace officer. He was booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail.