A shooting that took place late Sunday night near a popular World Cup watch party location in San Jose, California resulted in one fatality and left a second person in serious condition, according to authorities.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan released a statement saying the violence was not connected to the ongoing World Cup tournament. Police responded to the scene at approximately 9:12 p.m. local time, near North Market Street and West Santa Clara Street. No World Cup games were being shown at the San Pedro Square fan zone when the shooting occurred.
“This shooting happened near an area where families and fans have been gathering for our World Cup watch parties, and that makes the brazenness of this crime even more unacceptable,” Mayor Mahan said in a Monday statement.
“I am grateful that Sunday’s programming had ended hours earlier, and there is no indication this violence was connected to the event. San Jose has safely welcomed hundreds of thousands of people downtown, and we are not going to let one criminal act scare our community away from public spaces that belong to them,” he added.
Officers arriving at the scene found an adult male unconscious on the sidewalk with at least one gunshot wound. According to the San Jose Police Department, “Officers immediately began life-saving measures and summoned medical personnel to the scene where they ultimately pronounced the victim deceased.”
A second adult male victim was found several yards from the first. Emergency responders transported him to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police later said he had been stabilized and remains in critical condition but is expected to survive.
A witness who spoke to reporters at the scene Sunday said one of the victims was being treated by medics just outside a bar in the square, only a short distance from where World Cup fans had been watching games.
Following the shooting, police and security personnel evacuated the fan zone and cordoned off the surrounding area. Police said a spokesperson was scheduled to address the media at 11 a.m. local time Monday. The Bay Area is home to several dozen fan zones connected to the World Cup.
