Survivor of Orinda Halloween shooting describes moments during chaos

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ByVic Lee KGO logo
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Survivor of Orinda Halloween shooting describes moments during chaos
Brandon Duckworth was among a crowd estimated at more than a hundred at the Orinda home on Lucille Way.

ORINDA, Calif. (KGO) -- The Orinda City Council will meet for the first time since the shootings on Halloween night that killed five people. And a big part of the conversation is the issue of short term rentals with Airbnb.

All of this as police look into the possibility the massacre is linked to another mass shooting-- this one in San Francisco in 2015.

RELATED: Orinda to consider moratorium on short-term rentals after deadly Halloween shooting

"Shots going off. You don't know from where, who's shooting. Nothing. You just-- rapid shots going off. Everybody running, trying to save themselves."

Eighteen-year-old Brandon Duckworth was among a crowd estimated at more than a hundred at the Orinda home on Lucille Way-- a home rented on Halloween night on Airbnb and promoted on social media as a mansion party.

Then suddenly, he was running for his young life.

"Everybody falling down like that. Champagne on the floor. People slipping and falling."

On Tuesday, Duckworth came to the fountain in downtown Orinda where family and friends and strangers have paid their respects to the five who died.

Law Enforcement Sources tell ABC7 News that the Halloween shootings may have a connection with a brazen shooting that happened some four years ago in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood.

RELATED: Orinda Halloween Shooting: Family of man killed at Airbnb party speaks to ABC7 News

Four young men were in their parked car when the gunman walked up to them and fired at close range. Sources told ABC7 News that some of the victims were identified members of the Macblock street gang.

Those same sources were looking at members of a rival group-- the Page Street gang as the possible killers. One of the victims of the Orinda shootings is 22-year-old Tiyon Farley.

Tiyon is the half-brother of Lee Farley Jr-- the only suspect police arrested in the Hayes Valley murders.

Lee is currently awaiting trial.

Now, investigators want to know if the Orinda massacre was a retaliation for the Hayes Valley shooting.

Another victim on Halloween night-23-year-old Raymon Hill Jr., Tiyon Farley's childhood buddy. Hill had recently been paroled after serving time in state prison on a firearm conviction. Police are also looking to see if he may have been a target.

RELATED: San Francisco father loses third son to gun violence at Halloween Orinda party shooting

On Monday night the Orinda City Council will look at putting restrictions on short term rental Airbnb's, as a result of Halloween night's violence.

They expect a large crowd and the City Manager's office told ABC7 News it has received a lot of responses, many urging the Council to ban short term rentals altogether.