Court records reveal Cal Poly students’ campus shootings

December 25, 2023

By KAREN VELIE

The two 19-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students arrested for having a cache of weapons in their dorms allegedly shot their guns on campus four times while joking about shooting someone, according to court records.

Cal Poly police officers arrested Charles Hojaboom and Brandon Pham on Nov. 12 for possessing weapons on a college campus. During their investigation, officers discovered a cache of weapons and ammunition inside their on-campus housing units, electronic communications and video evidence.

Court records reveal two students who discussed harming others, shot at targets on campus and obtained multiple weapons and ammunition.

Shortly after 10 p.m. on Nov. 11, Cal Poly police officers heard what sounded like gunshots being fired from the northeast side of campus. Officer Destry Valdez then spotted Hojaboom and Pham, who were both wearing backpacks, walking towards his patrol vehicle.

Valdez ordered the pair to sit on the ground.

Hojaboom was carrying a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun inside a rifle case. His backpack contained a holstered semi-automatic Norinco pistol and several shot and unshot rounds.

After searching Pham’s backpack, which did not contain any weapons, officers asked Pham to show them where they were shooting. Pham led officers up Poly Canyon Road away from campus to a metal sign with a hole in it. Pham told officers he had not fired any weapons that evening.

During a search of Hojaboom’s room, officers located a disassembled Mosin-Nagant rifle, 650 rounds of ammunition, a ski mask, a machete, three large fixed-blade knives and one butterfly knife. Pham’s room held a large fixed-blade knife, Mace pepper gel, a stungun/flashlight, a butterfly knife and ammunition affixed to a military-style helmet.

Officers also discovered evidence showing one of the defendants had shot a round into the ceiling of Hojaboom’s room. The bullet pierced the upstairs neighbor’s floor, traveled through a trunk and lodged in a bedframe.

While examining the students’ cellphones, officers learned the pair regularly exchanged hundreds of text messages in a day.

Even though messages discussed, for example, shooting someone or something, including a police station, investigators determined it was “essentially intended as dark humor and satire,” according to court records.

In addition, while examining Hojaboom’s phone, detectives located evidence of two additional incidents in which the defendants fired weapons on the Cal Poly campus between June and Oct. 2023.

On June 10, officers responded to the area of Grand Avenue and Slack Street, the night after gunshots were heard in the area.

Hojaboom and Pham exchanged text messages of themselves posing in what appeared to be a dormitory room at Cal Poly on June 10. In some of the photos, each defendant was pointing a shotgun at the camera while wearing a ski mask.

On the morning of June 10, the pair discussed shooting from a position on a hillside when a spotlight began to shine up towards them. Both defendants then fled, leaving the shotgun and hearing protection behind.

June 10 early morning text message conversation:

Pham: Fuck tbh I don’t find this funny no more man after that floodlight was searching
for us
Pham: Lost the ears, got the gun dirty, and we got fucked up
Hojaboom: Yeah we messed up big time
Pham: I got a big ass cut from a tree on my calf
Hojaboom: I’m going straight back after the shower
Pham: Ah shit good luck man
Pham: Hopefully you don’t die tho from an angry yokel
Hojaboom: Yeah ima find that shotgun
Pham: Bring a bayonet or somethin idk
Hojaboom: Fuck
Pham: Also the ears
Hojaboom: Oh yeah huh
Hojaboom: If I can find it

In addition to the text messages, Hojaboom and Pham also shared videos. One video shows Hojaboom wearing ear protection and a bandolier containing shotgun rounds. He then fires a shotgun in the dark. Pham can be heard laughing after the first shot. Hojaboom looks back at the camera and says, “That was fuckin awesome.”

Another June 10 text message conversation:

Pham: Tbh that was actually hella sped of us for shooting downwards
Hojaboom: Yeah idk
Hojaboom: At first we were try Harding then we just started fucking around
Pham: There’s a whole ass strip of houses if you follow the trajectory
Later in the message string, the following exchange occurred:
Hojaboom: Idk hopefully we didn’t shoot at a farmer
Pham: (image sent)
Hojaboom: According to Quora we didn’t commit murder
Pham: I hope to god we didn’t hit anything beyond the cacti
Hojaboom: As long as we didn’t waste someone on accident.
Hojaboom: Would be so terrible.
Hojaboom: Innocent wowie dies
Pham: Like even hitting some dudes truck or home would be terrible
Hojaboom: True as long as no one got hurt
Pham: Yikes, probably died when he was tryna find a place to cry near the trees
Hojaboom: At least he’s in a better place now
Hojaboom: (attachment with .pdf entitled: “Shotguns can kill at a long range”)
Pham: Lmfao naw imagine the last thing he hears before he dies, “imma load three
rounds, put on the ears!”

There was another shooting shortly after 3 a.m on June 17 near the volleyball courts.

June 17 text message conversation:

Hojaboom: Ayo there’s fireworks outside my dorm
Pham: Yo fr?
Pham: Are they still active or naw
Hojaboom: Like I see the light outside my window
Hojaboom: Like 20 ft away
Pham: We should fire off some ‘fireworks’ too
Hojaboom: LOL
Hojaboom: U down?
Pham: Aight bet
Pham: Yo I hear em lol
Hojaboom: Like what location
Pham: Uh anywheres fine
Pham: Probably somewhere not near the ranch tho
Hojaboom: Lol true there’s no one here
Hojaboom: True maybe the volley ball feild
Pham: Yeah sounds good

Hojaboom and Pham exchanged seven videos of each other shooting Hojaboom’s shotgun near the Sierra Madre Tower Two dormitory building and the volleyball courts on June 17, according to court records. The pair was allegedly firing weapons less than thirty feet from a trailhead often used to access the “Cal Poly P.”

Officers also found evidence of the round fired into the ceiling of Hojaboom’s dormitory room. Shortly before midnight on Oct. 27, Pham sent Hojaboom a 20-second video in which Hojaboom places the butt of a rifle on his left thigh, with the muzzle pointed upward.

Pham says something inaudible, followed by “Charles Manson.” There is then the distinct sound of a bolt action rifle cycling. Seconds later, the weapon fires.

Over the next 24 hours, the pair exchanged 83 messages that they later deleted. Investigators have been unable to recover the content of the deleted messages.

Prosecutors charged both Hojaboom and Pham with four counts of possession of a loaded firearm on a college campus, possession of a knife on a college campus, discharging a firearm with gross negligence and shooting at an inhabited dwelling.

In addition, Hojaboom is facing misdemeanor possession of tools with intent to commit vandalism, and Pham is charged with misdemeanor possession of a stun gun on a college campus.

Initially charged with possession of weapons on a college campus, the pair quickly bailed out of jail. Prosecutors then filed addition charges.

At a hearing on Dec. 14, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Timothy Covello remanded Hojaboom to the SLO County Jail, where he is being held without bail. Pham remains out on bail under a restraining order that bars him from the Cal Poly campus.

Both Hojaboom and Pham are scheduled to return to court for an arraignment hearing on Jan. 4.

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