Police arrest wrong man in Merced County shooting, chief says. Here’s what happened.
2:25 p.m. Update
Livingston police say they arrested the wrong man in connection with a shooting over the weekend.
Police on Thursday arrested a 35-year-old Atwater man after a witness incorrectly identified him as the gunman in a shooting Sunday at the Town and Country Motel on Campbell Boulevard.
Investigators released the Atwater man several hours later after video surveillance revealed he was at a gas station at the time of the shooting, according to Livingston Police Chief Chris Soria.
“What we’re thinking happened is it was dark, and the victim may have thought it was that person when he picked him out of (the) lineup,” Soria said. “We’re going to go back to the victim to make sure. He can’t be two places at once.”
Soria says detectives will look into other leads that they hope will lead to another arrest.
The shooting was reported around 10 a.m. Sunday. The victim was a 39-year-old man who was treated and released from an area hospital that day.
California Highway Patrol officers later located an abandoned brown 2001 Honda, which belonged to the shooter, in an orchard near Central and Liberty avenues in a rural area of Merced County, according to Soria.
Soria said the motive for the shooting is unknown.
Anyone with information about Sunday’s shooting is asked to contact Detective Taylor Kollmann at 209-394-7916 or by email at tkollmann@livingstonpd.org.
Anonymous crime tips can be left by calling 209-394-3640.
This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 1:17 PM.
