San Jose police acknowledge that they have their hands full dealing with a surge in homicides.
The latest came early Tuesday morning when a man was gunned down. However, circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery to investigators and neighbors.
San Jose police officers were spotted investigating the 36th homicide of the year at a home near Coyote Creek by a large homeless encampment and the Los Lagos Golf Course.
Sgt. Enrique Garcia said the man's body was found about 1 a.m. sprawled out on a driveway on the 3100 block of Lone Bluff Way. Police said the man died of at least one gunshot wound.
Crime scene technicians were gathered in the front of the one-story home. Red tape marked off areas of the yard and driveway, but San Jose police admitted Tuesday evening that the investigation has stalled.
"Well right now we have zero leads to follow up on," Sgt. Enrique Garcia said. "That's the bottom line."
A neighbor said her husband heard gunshots, but residents who live nearby have not been able to help police piece together how the middle-aged man was shot dead.
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"Really it's very difficult to say if this victim was targeted by someone that knew him, if it was random or what the motive was," Garcia said.
Police, who have no motive or suspects at the time, said that San Jose saw 30 homicides in 2015 and 32 in 2014. The increasing homicide rate is just part of a bigger problem that stems from understaffing, they said.
"We know that rate can vary wildly from one year to the next, but what we have seen is a steady rise in violent crime," San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.
Garcia acknowledged that troubling trend.
"What we've noticed is that there's an increase in aggravated assaults," he said. "That's a fact throughout the city."
