Vallejo residents want Gov. Newsom to send officers to city amid police shortage, rampant crime
VALLEJO, Calif. (KGO) -- After two major weekend incidents in Vallejo, some community members are begging for help from the governor on Tuesday night.
Vallejo's interim police chief is also addressing what happened and the current situation with their understaffed department.
The first incident involved a fire that appears to have been set Saturday inside Target. The second, a 7-Eleven that was ransacked during a Sunday sideshow that left one person shot and a pickup truck on fire.
"Our Target was set on fire, the sideshow you reported on. It's lawlessness, complete lawlessness in the city and everyone knows it, they're taking advantage of it," said Paula Conley who lives in Vallejo.
VIDEO: Man shot, 7-Eleven ransacked during destructive Vallejo sideshow
On Monday, multiple neighbors who chose to not show their face out of fear, voiced their safety concerns after the 7-Eleven and sideshow situation.
On Tuesday, community members like Paula Conley took it a step further, begging for help from the governor.
"State of Emergency last July and we have no help from the outside, no sheriffs and no CHP! Oakland just got an influx of officers from the governor and we would like the governor to send officers here," said Conley.
Interim Vallejo Police Chief Jason Ta says the department is severely understaffed at just 33 patrol officers, but they have made improvements. They will bring a proposal to the council next month which could allow for Solano County deputies to help with patrols. That's only part of it, too.
MORE: City of Vallejo declares state of emergency over police officer shortage
"We were able to actually bring two Vallejo officers back who recently resigned and came back, and we're going to onboard four more so that's really exciting for us," said Chief Ta.
As for the police response to Sunday's sideshow, one that neighbors were angered by:
"We're not going to send officers into a situation that they don't have enough resources and so we did not have enough resources to respond quickly to that event. What I would say to anybody watching and the community, is to call it in and to really be a good witness. Try to avoid getting involved in whatever that situation is. Keep yourself safe, keep your family safe, and we will get there as soon as we can to address the problem," said Ta.
The shooting victim during that sideshow suffered non life-threatening injuries but no arrests have been made in that case, and no arrests have been made in the Target arson case.
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