by Natalie Hanson
posted Nov. 5
Shootings at Chico’s Teichert Ponds has some residents worried that unhoused people are facing increasing violence -– perhaps linked to rising levels of “dehumanizing” speech targeting them.
A shooting at the Ponds killed an unhoused man and left another seriously injured last year, and a shooting last month in the same preserve nearly killed another unhoused man. Both shootings involved people entering the Teichert Ponds encampment with the likely intent to “start a fight,” in District Attorney Mike Ramsey’s opinion.
In September 2021, around 2:30 in the morning, a teenage boy shot two unhoused men in Teichert Ponds after entering the site with a group of friends heading home from a nearby party, according to the district attorney’s office. The teen, whose name has not been disclosed because he is a minor, was accused of killing 53-year-old Guy Vanzant.