It’s been five months since Corey Shearer was shot at a house party in Rancho Cordova, and his mother still doesn’t know who killed her son or why.
“It’s unbearable knowing that the person who took my boy is out living his life and, and my son is gone,” Crystal Shearer said Friday. “It’s unbearable. It’s excruciating.”
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office on Friday released an image of a “person of interest” sought by detectives in the unsolved homicide case. Even though there were 75 to 100 young people at the Aug. 5 house party, the detectives have received little information from many of those in attendance and no suspects have been arrested, said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi.
“There were a lot of kids there. And parents, we’re asking you to talk to your kids if you know that they might have been there, ask them, go through their phones, they might have even taken an innocuous picture,” Gandhi said at Friday’s news conference. “That could be the break (detectives) need.
“So anything that you have from there, we will take with open arms.”
Shearer, 20, of Ione and his three younger sisters grew up in Amador County, where he played football at Amador High School and later at Argonaut High. He had gone to the party held at a home in the 3000 block of Ramsgate Way, just east of Mather Field Road in Rancho Cordova. His girlfriend was with him.
His mother said he didn’t know the people who were hosting the party, and she thinks he didn’t know a lot of the people at the party. There were a few young people from his town. She said she can’t imagine what type of dispute escalated to gunfire.
“He was a very friendly, outgoing, fun person,” she said, “and did not have problems, did not look for problems or try to start problems with people.”
The shooting was reported about 11:20 pm Shearer was shot multiple times. Shearer’s girlfriend called 911 to report her boyfriend had been shot. Rancho Cordova police officers arrived and found Shearer wounded and administered medical care, sheriff’s officials have said. He died later at a hospital.
Gandhi said detectives know little about the nature of the dispute, since “witnesses have been very hard to come by.” He said the Sheriff’s Office, which is contracted to provide police services in Rancho Cordova, identified a young man as a “person of interest” after some witnesses said they saw him “fleeing” the home shortly after the shooting.
The Sheriff’s Office released images from security camera video of the person who was described as a male 17 to 20 years old, about 5-foot-10 to 6 feet, weighing about 130 to 150 pounds. Gandhi said witnesses told investigators he was wearing black clothing and a black face mask. The images released show a young man without a mask wearing a hooded sweatshirt.
“What we need from the public is anything you have, even if you don’t know who this person is, if you have any pictures, videos, anything from that party that might help identify this individual, we’ll take it from you ,” Gandhi said. “And you can remain completely anonymous.”
He said there were likely a lot of young people at the party who were not supposed to be there, so getting video, photos or witnesses to come forward has been extremely difficult.
“We were very fortunate to be able to get what we have,” Gandhi said about the homicide investigation. “And at this point, our detectives are at that proverbial dead end where we want and need the public’s help on this.”
Shearer had been working for about a year as a janitor at Harrah’s Casino in Ione, where his mother also worked the overnight shift. Crystal Shearer said her son had hopes of one day starting a landscaping company.
“He was a very hard worker,” she told reporters. “And all of the people that he worked with would tell me what a hard worker and reliable he was. But he wanted to move to Tahoe and start his life. He didn’t get a chance.”
Detectives ask anyone with information relevant to this homicide investigation to call the Sheriff’s Office at 916-874-5115 or Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers at 916-443-4357. Tips can also be submitted anonymously by calling 916-874-8477 or by filling out the Sheriff’s Office online tip form.
