MOJAVE, Calif. (KGET) — People living in the small desert town of Mojave are shocked and still coming to grips with the mass shooting that left four people dead late Sunday night.
Kern’s recent mass shooting has shaken Mojave to its core.
Residents said this violence isn’t common and something the community is not used to seeing.
Within an hour of the mass shooting word spread across the small town like wildfire. Some were disgusted by the news.
“It was a little bit of disgust and anger and you think what are we doing wrong out here,” Ted Hodgkinson the president of the Mojave Chamber of Commerce said.
Others were saddened.
“It made me sad to believe that people will do that to each other but you watch the news now and that’s all we see,” Paul Carol a retired Mojave teacher said.
While some didn’t know how to react.
“Shock. Basically to hear that we had four people that were murdered in Mojave,” Victor Yaw a member of the Mojave Chamber of Commerce said.
Long-time locals say crime isn’t common here.
“This is sort of a real foreign thing to lose four people in one event,” Hodgkinson said. “I think back and we’ve had one murder here one there over how many decades? I’ve lived here since 1954.”
Ricardo Reyes Partida was arrested less than 24 hours after the shooting at an apartment complex a block for allegedly having controlled substances and on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
However, the sheriff’s office says this arrest is unrelated to the mass shooting. Some community members blame the homeless and drug addicts for the rise in crime.
“It’s a migration thing that people that the homeless people are starting to do,” Yaw said. “We have had more over the last few years that are trying to sleep here in the park and do things around town.”
“We have a lot of people taking the easy way out. They’re getting into drugs and getting into illegal activities,” Carol said. “Another problem is Law enforcement are not supported. We don’t have enough law enforcement in our area.”
