SAN JOSE — One of the victims of a deadly triple shooting early Tuesday was identified by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan as an employee of the city’s housing department, as police continue their for the shooter who violently pierced the overnight quiet of a South San Jose neighborhood.
The shooting was reported about a half hour after midnight Tuesday in the 200 block of Chynoweth Avenue, between Snell and Edenvale avenues, when police were called to the location for a report of gunfire and a woman outside screaming.
Responding officers found a gravely wounded woman outdoors, then went inside an apartment and found two more seriously wounded people, a man and a woman. The woman inside was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other two victims died soon after after being taken to a hospital.
None of the three people who died have been publicly named by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office, pending their formal identification and notification of their next of kin.
Without naming the person, Mahan said Wednesday that one of the victims worked for the city in its housing division. He added that the city has made counselors available for grieving colleagues.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Mahan said. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the victims and their loved ones.”
The police department has not announced any new information on a shooting suspect, though Mahan said detectives are “pursuing all leads and conducting a thorough investigation,” but declined to say more “to let the investigation play out.”
“In the meantime, we’re going to focus on the victims and everybody affected, including our housing department and many employees at City Hall, who were very shook up today (and) yesterday, as some of them started to learn the news. So it’s a very, very sad situation.”
The killings brought the city’s homicide total for the year to 21; San Jose had recorded 23 homicides at the same point in 2024, according to data compiled by this news organization.
Outside the crime scene Tuesday, neighbors who live near the apartment complex recalled waking up to gunshots, with one resident saying that it sounded like three separate bursts of gunfire from a semi-automatic firearm.
Anyone with information for investigators can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283 or email Detective Sgt. Richard Martinez at 3934@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Christina Jize at 4324@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.