Investigations of both incidents got underway Thursday morning. A lot of questions remain unanswered including how the first man died and whether or not the second killing was gang-related.
For some people Thursday morning, all they could do was pay their respects to a man gunned down shortly after midnight. Police say the victim was standing outside a residence on the 2300 block of Dobern Ave. near the 680 overpass when a suspect or suspects approached and someone opened fire.
One witness named Josh said there was a birthday party going on and he saw it all. "All of a sudden, we all happened to go in the house. They all happened to go in their house and get their place ready so they can eat when one of the guys happened to walk out here and sees a bunch of gangbangers running up to the house," he said. "They ran into my property with blue bandanas on their face and just obviously, shot down the guys that were here, shot down one of the guys and he was shot and killed."
Josh says it was not a gang shooting, but police are not so sure. "We do have a belief that it was possibly gang-related. Again, we're not releasing any information on that part of it," said San Jose police spokesman Albert Morales.
Earlier in the evening, another homicide happened in the 100 block of South Second Street two blocks from San Jose State University. Police responded to a report of a fight and found a man unconscious. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Police say they don't know how he died. "Nothing obvious, which is why the coroner came and we still need to go ahead and conduct an autopsy and as soon as we get that information from the coroner's office, we'll go ahead and provide thatin formation," Morales told ABC7 News.
There have been 36 homicides in San Jose this year which is on par with last year's statistics where there were 41 homicides, a 15-year high.