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A man who was reportedly shot in the Menlo Park “Baylands Triangle” area was taken to the hospital after being found in cardiac arrest on Monday morning, Menlo Park Fire Protection District Chief Harold Schapelhouman said in a statement.
Firefighters responded to the reported shooting at 11:38 a.m. Monday in the Triangle, which covers about 60 acres of open nature preserve located at the edge of East Palo Alto along University Avenue, Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road near Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters. A caller told Menlo Park police dispatchers that “someone was shot” near westbound Highway 84 at University Avenue, Schapelhouman said.
A man was shot in a homeless encampment near Highway 84 and University Avenue in Menlo Park on Monday, March 8, according to the Menlo Park Fire Protection District.
Menlo Park police officers who first arrived found a man bleeding out from a gunshot to his left thigh. Officers quickly applied a tourniquet on the man’s leg and moved him from a homeless encampment closer to an abandoned rail line. They started chest compressions because he wasn’t breathing, Schapelhouman said.
Capt. Scott Blandford on Menlo Engine 2 arrived on scene with his crew at 11:42 a.m. and parked on University Avenue at the abandoned Dumbarton Rail line, using the elevated rail bed to travel to the encampment and the patient, who was located about 500 feet from the roadway. The area, also known as the Ravenswood Triangle, is fraught with hazards from trash, trenches and latrine pits, some as deep as 10 to 12 feet, often hampering fire and police access, he noted.
Firefighter/paramedics moved the man onto the flat elevated rail bed and looked for additional bullet wounds. The man had suffered significant blood loss from the single entry wound into his thigh. Paramedics also suspected he had a broken femur. Emergency personnel worked to compensate for his massive blood loss and performed CPR and used a defibrillator to monitor his heart and try to save his life, Schapelhouman said.
The man was transported to Stanford Health Care’s Emergency Trauma Center at 12:07 p.m., arriving at 12:24 p.m., where he received emergency trauma care and was hospitalized in critical condition.
The shooter fled the scene and remains at large as of Monday.
Schapelhouman has sought for years to have the city of Menlo Park and state and county agencies restrict access to the Triangle, which has been the location of multiple fires from homeless encampments and significant environmental damage. Menlo Park officials recently reported that the number of people living in encampments near the Bay had dropped to around 10 from a high of around 60 people in the summer due to efforts to connect unhoused people with services.
“We recently made some significant progress in having Caltrans and the state bring in a contractor to remove a number of the encampments on the north side of the Triangle near Willow Road. They filled multiple 50-yard dumpsters with debris, filled in dangerous trenches that had been dug along with latrine pits, some as deep as 10-12 feet below the surface of the ground.
“A number of the people living out here have been assisted by the city, county, Life Moves and We Hope and other volunteer organizations along with several religious organizations. Others simply moved elsewhere until they can move back. We’ve been working on this for years now, it’s not an easy problem to solve. This particular grouping of encampments on the south side is on land owned by SamTrans (responsible for the Dumbarton Rail Line and a 50-foot easement on each side of the track). We’ll be in touch with them to have these encampments removed as well.
“Sadly, violence like shootings, stabbings, drug overdoses and fires have all dramatically increased to unacceptable levels over the last few years and that has been exacerbated because of out of touch state policies that somehow presume that local firefighters and police officers wouldn’t be touching people because of COVID. Clearly, that isn’t the case and never has been when a life hangs in the balance, no matter who you are!” Schapelhouman said in the statement.
Detectives from the California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division’s Special Investigations Unit are now trying to determine the identity of the shooter and are asking anyone with information about the shooting to call the CHP investigation tip line at (707) 917-4491.
More information will be added to this story as it becomes available. Information from Bay City News Service was used in this report.
This area has been an epicenter for problems for years. There have been several fired started by the homeless, there were boobie traps set up that the fire department had to deal with when fighting those fires. There have also been several crimes committed including assaults and this shooting. I applaud the work that has been done to find housing and services for the people at the encampment. Bringing it from 60 people to 10 has been great, however it is time to clean the area completely and move the remaining campers out.. It is obviously not a safe place for people to be, the city owes it to the people in the encampment and to the neighbors that have been impacted by the fires and crime to clean it up and prevent the camp from being re-established.