Editorial: When gun violence hits home

As the Homecoming dance at Sonoma Valley High School ended on Saturday night, a parade of well-dressed teens headed north on Broadway — some stopped for a pick-me-up at Dutch Bros. Steiner’s Tavern was packed with weekend patrons, and a security team aimed at keeping the peace. Neighbors walked dogs or ran to 7-Eleven for a quick errand.

Many people didn’t believe their ears when shots rang out from the Sonoma Plaza. More shocking still was the news that an armed man had fired at police officers right in front of the Sonoma Index-Tribune office on West Napa Street. Deputies shot back, and as of Monday, the suspect was in critical condition at a Sacramento-area hospital.

Even though studies show that gun violence happens everywhere, in often-bucolic Sonoma Valley, it’s easy to be lured into the false sense that “these things don’t happen here.” Looking back, however, violent incident in Sonoma Valley cannot be ignored.

Many will remember the violent 1995 heist at Bank of America at 35 E. Napa St. A man and a woman attempted to rob an armored car of $200,000, shooting and killing security guard Richard Price in the process. Another guard shot the male suspect, William F. Crouch, 64, who died of his injuries. After she fled, former Index-Tribune co-owner Jim Lynch spotted the female suspect — Glen Ellen mother of three Joan Carrafa — changing out of her disguise in the newspaper’s parking lot. She was arrested and later convicted of first-degree murder.

In 2007, the tragic murder of 17-year-old Luis Miranda rocked the Springs. According to police reports, the Oct. 22, shooting was gang-related, sparked after two groups of “affiliated” members had words at Maxwell Farms Regional Park. But according to his parents, Luis was a loving teen, not a gang member — tragically in the wrong place, at the wrong time, when three gunshots shattered that fall night and decimated a local family.

Gun homicides are a epidemic that plagues our country more than any other place on earth, outside of war-torn regions. In a land where schools, concert venues and even churches are not safe, we, as residents must do everything possible not to normalize the violence we see almost daily in this country. This is especially true in poorer, BIPOC communities that tend to experience more gun trauma, which often goes unnoticed.

“Eighty to 90 percent of the time a gun is fired, there’s no call to 911, which means there’s no police response, which means that gun violence becomes normalized in these communities,” Ralph A. Clark, founder of a technology that tracks the sound of gunshots, told The Atlantic magazine in 2018.

Sonoma was flooded with 911 calls on Saturday night, a small sign of our connectivity in this otherwise disturbing evening. Yes, “these things” happen everywhere, but it’s important to remember, it doesn’t have to be this way.