Three people wounded in a shooting near Rutledge Road and Castro Valley Boulevard early Sunday may have been leaving a dance party attended by about 200 people, said Bob Pirone, administrator of the where the party was held.
Alameda County sheriff's deputies responded to a report of gunfire around 1 a.m. and found two men and a woman suffering from gunshot wounds, Sgt. J.D. Nelson said. Two people had been shot in the leg and the third was wounded in the ankle, he said. All are expected to survive.
Authorities are trying to identify the shooter. He was described as a black man in his late teens or early 20s, standing about 5 feet,10 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with shoulder-length dreadlocks and a gold grill in his teeth, Nelson said.
“We did have an event at the Moose Lodge, but the shooting was on the boulevard down the block at the ,” said Pirone, who said he saw police barricades there after he closed the lodge and was on his way home around 1:40 a.m.
The fast-food restaurant was closed at the time. Pirone said he asked a deputy what happened and was told there had been a minor incident.
“The police were doing their investigation. The people who were wounded were gone,” Pirone said.
Pirone was already home when, minutes later around 1:50 p.m., he got a call from deputies asking about the party at the lodge, which is regularly rented out to a variety of groups, from the Boy Scouts and American Legion to others hosting karaoke nights and dart league events.
Whether the three wounded people were among those who attended the dance "has not been determined," Pirone said.
He estimates that 200 people attended and were mostly in their late teens, 20s and 30s. He wasn’t able to describe the music other than to say it was for a “younger, modern” crowd.
“I would imagine they weren’t Castro Valley kids,” he said.
“We put wristbands on people who are over 21. We watch the alcohol consumption real close, but that doesn’t stop people from bringing it and drinking it in their cars,” he said.
“It was an 18-and-over party. They were all in there dancing. When 1:30 came around, the music stopped and everybody poured out,” Pirone said.
He emphasized that the shooting didn’t happen inside the lodge, which also hosts fundraisers for civic groups. For more details about the Hayward Castro Valley Moose Lodge, click here to read Ken Martin’s blog.
Bay City News and San Lorenzo Patch editor Analisa Harangozo contributed to this report.
