Hayward police say it was two reasonably new officers and one seasoned veteran involved in the shooting. It wall started at The Dirty Bird Lounge on Mission Boulevard when a patron suddenly pulled out a gun and started firing and then police went looking for him.
The bullet holes tell the story. Hayward police officers shot and killed the man driving a blue car early Sunday morning. The car matched the description of one driven by a man who had just shot and injured one or two people at The Dirty Bird Lounge just before 1 a.m. Responding officers spotted the sedan less than a half mile from the lounge and tried to stop the driver.
"The driver threw his vehicle into reverse and accelerated quickly toward the officers. The officers recognized this was an assault on their life with his motor vehicle as a deadly weapon in this circumstance," said Hayward Police Lt. Roger Keener.
Tennyson Road between East 12th and Mission Boulevard was closed for much of the day for the investigation. It will take some time before more details are released.
"All three officers did fire and we're still determining how many shots were fired by each individual officer and of course some of that will be tightened up when we interview the officers themselves," said Keener.
Police believe the man they killed was the one who opened fire inside the Dirty Bird Lounge. Sam King, also known as DJ Poizin, was spinning vinyl when it happened and ended up with a bullet in his lip - he said he pulled it out himself.
Ishimaru: Was it a piece of a bullet then or the whole thing?
King: The whole thing.
Ishimaru: What caliber?
King: It looked like a 9mm.
King says the shooter had been dancing and having fun, but got angry suddenly, possibly in a fight over a girl.
"Usually you can kind of tell when something's about to go down, but in this case it just happened quick. It went from everyone smiling to everyone jumping on the ground and running for their lives in an instant," said King.
He came back to the lounge on Monday to retrieve his records and plans to be back here DJing next week.
Ishimaru: How are you doing right now with your shot lip?
King: It doesn't really hurt, but it just it's kind of embarrassing. I'm ok.
The coroner has identified the shooting victim, but they're leaving it to the Hayward Police Department to release his name. The lounge owner says he has been in this spot for three-and-a-half years and normally it's a very mellow, eclectic cloud. Naturally, he's looking forward to all of this blowing over as quickly as possible.
Monday night a crowd gathered to protest the shooting, but the crowd quickly dispersed.
