Witnesses described a ‘chaotic’ scene after shots rang out at Oceano Dunes concert
Shortly after a shooting at an Oceano Dunes concert, a sheriff’s deputy said he suspected that a young man who emerged from the dark in a locked-down area might be armed.
But fearing a gun fight would ensue if he confronted him, the deputy and his partner instead let the man walk away as they continued to trail him and called for backup.
“We felt that chasing him would cause a larger issue” due to the number of people who were still in the area, Sheriff’s Deputy Ian McFarland testified in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Monday.
The shooting at an unpermitted concert at the park just before midnight May 4 sent six people to the hospital, with some requiring surgery and treatment in an intensive care unit.
Francisco Orozco, 19, of Oakland, was detained shortly after the shooting and arrested later the next morning. He’s charged with one count of attempted murder for a victim he allegedly targeted and five counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm for each of the concertgoers he allegedly shot.
He’s pleaded not guilty and remains in custody at the San Luis Obispo County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Though law enforcement officials say Orozco was the lone shooter, his defense attorney says he was misidentified by a witness and wasn’t involved.
Orozco was in court Monday for a preliminary hearing in which Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Duffy will ultimately rule whether probable cause exists to support bringing each charge forward to trial.
McFarland testified that he saw Orozco emerge out of the dark from behind a trailer in an area that had already been cordoned off by law enforcement.
“(Orozco) said he was just out walking around,” McFarland said. “People should not have been out and about in that area.”
After telling Orozco to move along, in the darkness he heard the distinct sound of the racking of the slide of a semiautomatic handgun. He said he immediately flashed his flashlight to Orozco, who was then standing with two other men about 30 yards away.
“I turned to my partner and said, ‘Did you hear that?” McFarland testified.
Though the park was a “cold scene” by that point because the shooter was no longer considered “active,” McFarland said he was concerned for his safety because the shooter might still be in the area.
Sheriff’s Deputy Bradley Adams testified that as police were detaining people for questioning, he said he saw someone duck behind a nearby trailer. Moving in to investigate, he said he found a loaded black Beretta 9mm handgun sticking out of the sand under the corner of a tent.
Two expended shell casings were also found at the trailer, though they did not match the Beretta, Adams said.
State Parks Officer Brett Weber testified that a case for a handgun was also found inside a Chevy Tahoe, though it was not clear from the testimony given Monday how the car is associated with Orozco.
Under cross examination by defense attorney Guy Galambos, Weber said that he and a partner were the first law enforcement officers to arrive minutes after the shooting. He described a chaotic scene with “hundreds if not thousands” of people scrambling to get away from the area.
“I saw people going in every direction,” Weber said.
The alleged target of the shooting later told Sheriff’s Deputy James Silverstein that he saw Orozco — a man he knew only as “Gordo” — fire the gun in his direction from the door of the trailer approximately 50 yards north of the concert area. The shots missed the man.
The alleged target told the deputy that he knew Gordo from Oakland, where they both went to the same high school. The man told Silverstein that he had had two past incidents in which he was intimidated by the man, including an episode in which Gordo pulled a handgun on him, Silverstein testified.
No shells were found near the trailer from which the witness said he saw Orozco firing. Silverstein said that didn’t surprise him, because they were “likely lost in the mass fleeing of people, buried in the sand.” Investigators later searched thea rea with a metal detector and a K-9 capable of detecting gunpowder, but didn’t find any other shell casings.
Though Orozco was not found in possession of any gun, Silverstein said the witness told him he believed Orozco had passed it off to someone in his group.
“He stated, ‘All these guys are Norteños,’” Silverstein said, referring to a Northern California street gang.
Silverstein said, however, that no other witness was able to corroborate what the alleged target of the shooting told him.
District Attorney Investigator Hank Abbas testified that the victims who were hit by bullets did not see who shot them.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning.
This story was originally published August 26, 2019 at 6:28 PM.
