After being identified as a suspect in Williams' murder, Muhammad decided that he would not "go down for one murder" and that he "might as well take out as many white men" as he could.
[28] Hours after the identification, several shootings were reported in downtown Fresno. Muhammad first approached a
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) utility truck at approximately 10:45 a.m. and fired four shots into it, critically wounding an employee seated in the passenger seat. The passenger of the vehicle was identified to be Zachary Randalls.
[29] The driver of that truck was spared from being shot, since Muhammad deemed him Hispanic and thus non-white. The driver managed to drive away unharmed and took Randalls to the
Fresno Police Department headquarters, where he alerted officers. Randalls was taken to
Community Regional Medical Center, where he later died.
[15][30][31][32][33]
In Muhammad's murder trial, the driver of the PG&E utility truck testified that the truck was in park when Muhammad approached them sitting in it. From Muhammad's facial expression, the driver said Muhammad had a "cold, dark look" which the driver found to be unnerving. The driver nodded to Muhammad as a gesture from his window, to which Muhammad was unresponsive. Muhammad walked past the driver's left fender and then stopped, looking into the truck again. The driver told Randalls that he was suspicious of Muhammad's behavior at this moment. Muhammad then reached into his jacket, prompting the driver to immediately put the truck in reverse. Muhammad fired his gun a few times at the passenger's side, where Randalls was sitting, as the driver was backing up. As the driver backed up a sufficient distance from Muhammad, Muhammad fired off one last shot which hit the headrest of Randall's seat. Randalls told the driver that he was shot. The driver called
9-1-1 emergency and drove to the police station because he did not know where the closest hospital was.
[29] The driver stated that Randalls lost consciousness on the way to the police station.
[21]
Seconds after shooting four rounds into the PG&E truck on N. Van Ness and mortally wounding Randalls, Muhammad proceeded south to Mildreda, turning west. Muhammad fired two more shots at a 59-year-old man coming out of his house, but the shots missed. The second shot hit a residential dwelling on the other side of the street.
[15] Muhammad then reloaded his revolver in the alley between Van Ness and Fulton. Muhammad stated that he considered pursuing the 59-year-old man, believing he had gone back inside his house, but changed his mind. Muhammad then turned onto N. Fulton St heading south, where he fired once at a vehicle containing a woman, her adult daughter, and her four-year-old granddaughter, but stopped shooting after realizing they were
Latino. No one in the vehicle suffered any gunshot wounds.
[15][27][34][35]
Muhammad then walked down the opposite direction, where he spotted a man, Mark Gassett, walking out of a
Catholic Charities USA building. He shot Gassett once in the chest; he then killed him with two more shots after he had fallen to the ground.
[36][37] Muhammad then reloaded at a bus stop and fired at three white men. Two of them escaped unharmed, but Muhammad chased the third man, David Jackson.
[38] Muhammad followed Jackson, who was the heaviest and oldest of the three white men, into the parking lot of a
Catholic Charities USA building. There, Muhammad fired six shots: two that killed Jackson, two that struck parked vehicles, one that struck a nearby building, and a sixth that was apparently never recovered. Witnesses said that Muhammad shouted obscenities as he fired.
[15][27][30][39][34]
Officers responding to
shotspotter reports found Muhammad running down the street and managed to arrest him.
[30] During the arrest, Muhammad shouted, "
Allahu Akbar!"
[40] Several bullets and
speedloaders for a
.357 Magnum revolver were recovered from his person, but no firearm was found.
[30] According to Chief Jerry Dyer, the gun was wrapped in clothing and picked up by a
Hispanic male who had met up with Muhammad shortly after the shootings and then fled the scene.
[15][27] Dyer also said a total of seventeen shots were fired in 90 seconds during these shootings.
[27][9][8] Four minutes had passed between the first shots and Muhammad's arrest.
[15] Several streets and county government buildings were put on
lockdown during the shootings, with people being ordered to
shelter in place.
[41][42]
ucr.fbi.gov
