The body of 26-year-old Julius Hughes was found behind a wall right around 7 a.m. Monday morning. The victim is from Contra Costa County, but police say the family did not make it clear to them where he actually lived.
Police spent much of Monday processing the scene where the body was found. The location is very close to where an NFL season kickoff pool party event took place the night before at the W Hotel in Newark.
There were many fans at the invite-only party. The event promoter told ABC7 players from both the 49ers and Raiders organizations were at the party. The victim was not one of the invited guests.
Police say the hotel did not have the required permit to hold the large event and that there were 300 to 400 people at the party with an overflow crowd in the parking lot. The promoter says he did contact the W Hotel and that there were closer to 155 people at the event.
When police were in the process of breaking up the party around 8:40 p.m., they actually heard shots fired in the parking lot area.
"I was watching television and I just heard some gunshots and that was unusual for this area," neighbor Adrian Arroyo said. "Probably like a set of five or six gunshots at a time."
"While officers were on scene there was several shots wheard. We had to request an outside assist from Fremont and Union City Police Department to help with crowd control and the party was shut down. And, this morning, the body was located," explained Officer Bob Douglas with the Newark Police Department.
Police say they did a search of the area Sunday night for the person who may have fired the shots and of course, any victim. They came up empty so they broke up the party. ABC7 tried to talk to hotel management but they referred all questions to Newark police.
Police are asking any witnesses that may have information about this crime to please give them at a call at 1-510-578-4247.
