Livermore police arrested a 28-year-old man following a rare double homicide in this typically quiet East Bay suburb, saying the shooting death was over an "exchange of contraband."
Addressing reporters at a Monday news conference Officer Traci Rebiejo identified the alleged shooter as James Wears of Livermore, whom she said had a "criminal past." She went over the chronological event of Sunday's shooting - the first homicide since 2012 - but did not disclose too much more.
The shooting was reported Sunday about 4:30 p.m. near Altamont Creek and Winding Stream drives following reports of some sort of fight, police said. When officers arrived, they found two men on the ground suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. One man died at the scene and the other man died in the hospital. Police said both victims were also in their 20s. Neither victim was immediately identified.
Then about 9 p.m., detectives learned that the potential suspect was near the Springtown Golf Course, and arrested the man nearby at the intersection of Bluebell Drive and Sunflower Court. Wears put up a struggle, Rebiejo said, and was bitten by a K-9 officer's dog.
Police said Wears knew the two men he allegedly shot, and she called the death an "isolated event."
A man who knows one of the victims told NBC Bay Area off camera that the shooting was over a gun, and that Wears was seen around town "peddling drugs."
The deaths are the first homicides in Livermore this year. The last homicide in Livermore was in December 2012 when 28-year-old Robert Ogden was shot to death. His body was found near the same golf course.
