Shots were fired in the early morning hours Sunday in the Point Dume area. Suspects in the attack that resulted in the shooting were arrested, but posted bail on Monday.
By Laura Tate / Editor
A confrontation that began with unwanted guests at a Malibu home ended with several gunshots being fired in the Point Dume neighborhood Sunday morning at approximately 3 a.m. Three young men were arrested and were later released on bail. No one was hurt in the shootout, but a resident who lives in the area said a bullet hole was found in a residential building across the street from the scene of the shooting.
The alleged victims in the case, who identified the suspects in a lineup, said they are in fear for their lives because the suspects were released on bail Monday and they were not informed of this by Sheriff’s officials.
Several Sheriff’s officials at the Lost Hills/Malibu Station contacted on Monday said they had no information about the case. Detectives and other Sheriff’s officials did not return repeated phone calls about the incident, nor responded to an e-mail sent by The Malibu Times.
A Sheriff’s report forwarded to The Malibu Times by a city official on Monday stated that at about 2:27 a.m. on Sunday “three unwanted guests” arrived at a residence in the Point Dume neighborhood and “confronted residents at the location and threatened them with a knife.” The suspects left before deputies arrived, and the deputies left the scene after obtaining information for the report. The suspects, according to the residents in the case who spoke to the Times anonymously, returned to the scene “not even five minutes after they [the deputies] left,” with an air pellet gun, bats and other weapons, and shot out windows and threatened to kill the residents. According to the Sheriff’s report, “One of the residents, armed with a 9 millimeter handgun, began firing the weapon at the suspects, forcing them to retreat.” The suspects then fled the location in a dark colored SUV and were later arrested by deputies in the Agoura area on Kanan Road. The three men were booked at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station for “an assortment of felony and misdemeanor charges,” states the Sheriff’s report.
One of the residents, in recounting the confrontation, said he and his friends were playing a Wii game when the three suspects walked into their home uninvited. (The resident said their friends were going in and out, and so the door was left unlocked. “Unfortunately, we live in a community to feel safe enough to leave our door unlocked,” said the resident.)
“They came in, we asked them to leave several times,” the resident said. “Finally they left, and then they were in street, yelling, ‘We don’t have to leave.'”
One of the suspects continued yelling and then ran up the porch steps toward the home as one of the other residents tried to shut the door. The suspect, according to the resident, took out a knife and tried to stab his friend who shut the door.
One of the suspects yelled, “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you,” the resident said.
By then the residents had called 911, but the suspects left before deputies arrived. The residents said they had “begged” the deputies not to leave but the deputies said they had to respond to a robbery call and that they were “understaffed.”
After the deputies left, according to the residents, a friend who had been watching a parking lot near the scene called to warn them that three men dressed in black were running toward their home, carrying a gun and the other weapons.
Pandemonium ensued, the residents said, as the suspects fired the air pellet gun at the windows and began kicking the door to their home and threw some sort of smoke bomb or pepper spray can in through one of the windows. One of the residents then got out a gun and fired a warning shot into the ground, they said, and as the suspects kept trying to come through the door, fired a shot at the intruders.
“Then they finally realized we weren’t fooling around,” said one resident, who said the suspects then fled the scene.
The residents said that deputies took at least 15 to 20 minutes to respond to their second 911 call and that the operator who answered asked them if they “were joking” about the attack. The sheriff’s report states that the deputies responded to the second call at 3:20 a.m.
A neighbor said a large party was taking place on the same street as the shooting. The alleged victims in the shooting said they had nothing to do with the party and don’t know the suspects in the attack.
The residents said they have hired a security company to guard their home.
“Our lives are still in danger right now,” said one.