Police dispute that Ray is a target

July 1, 2014

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Caren Ray contends a pellet or BB shot through her window was done purposely by someone standing in her small private front yard, an allegation police say the evidence does not support.

“Someone shot through my window,” Ray says on Facebook. “Guess this is what the general election is going to be like. Whoa.”

After noting the difference in the height of the hole through her screen and the hole through the window, Ray determined a very tall person trespassed into her private yard and shot into her window.

“The scary part is that given the angle (shown by the screen), the person had to be at least 6′ tall standing in my secluded yard, or a small child standing on my porch,” Ray says on Facebook. “It really had to be the former.”

However, Arroyo Grande police said the BB or pellet shot through Ray’s window Sunday evening appears random and was most likely children from a nearby wooded area. There have been dozens of BB gun shootings reported during the past few months, police said.

“We do not believe this was politically motivated, we believe this was kids,” Arroyo Grande Police Sergeant Dan Langstaff said. “She lives in a place near a creek where kids congregate. We know kids run around with BB guns all the time. It appears random.”

In addition, several former law enforcement officers looked at the photo of the window Ray posted on Facebook and also do not agree with Ray’s conclusion. They said the hole is slightly oval and that the hole through the window is lower than the hole through the screen, suggesting a BB or pellet was most likely on its downward trajectory. They determined the shot was likely taken from 30 to 200 yards away depending on the gun used.