Sundar Singh heard the shots last night.
"Sounded like -- tack-tack-tack-tack," said Singh.
So did Kimberly Carr and her 5-year-old daughter who are now scared to live here.
"It's shocking because the neighborhood has changed. I grew up around here and the neighborhood has changed over the 30 years. I feel unsafe," said Carr.
Police heard about the shooting before they even got a 911 call. The city's ShotSpotter system detected nine shots fired around 11:45 Wednesday night.
"I want to say that we were here within about a minute-and-a-half and all we found was a deceased 31-year-old male," said East Palo Alto Police Dept. Sgt. David Carson.
The killer was gone and police have no leads. Yet Carr says she saw something suspicious last night -- an SUV she didn't recognize parked at her relative's home.
"We're baffled on whose SUV this was in the back of her yard that was driving down the street with no lights on," said Carr.
These are the kinds of tips police are hoping people will call in.
"Sometimes people are scared because they have to live here, but I want them to know is they have nothing to fear. We can't do this job alone, we need their help," said Carson.
East Palo Alto police say they don't normally consider this neighborhood to be a dangerous one, but some who live here say the sound of gunfire is a part of their life.
"Around in this neighborhood, around here it's kind of common, so it's just kind of like fireworks; we hear it all the time," said Easonya Blakey of East Palo Alto.
The victim has been identified as Scedrick Tippins Jr. Police said they are familiar with him, but they don't know the motive behind the shooting.
Anyone with information about the shooting has been asked to call East Palo Alto police at (650) 321-1112.
