Ceres Police detectives are investigating a shooting that occurred in front of George's Liquors Saturday evening.
The shots were fired at a man sitting on a bench in front of the store but did not strike him.

The man called police at around 10:09 p.m. and said he had been shot at but the shooter ran away. He told police that he went to the store to buy a drink and was resting on the bench when the shooter fired three rounds in his direction. Before the shooting he said the suspect walked southbound on Central Avenue, crossed from the west to east side of the street and continued along in front of La Sequoia Market when someone in a white vehicle moving westbound on Caswell Avenue towards Central Avenue said something to the suspect and heard the suspect reply, "Nothing, just chillin'."

When the suspect reached the snow cone shack in front of La Sequoia Market he ducked down as he ran back across the street toward the parking lot of Bob's Coffee shop. That's when the suspect opened fire on the victim on the bench. He told police that at first he didn't think he was being shot at until hearing bullets whiz by him. The victim told police he did not know the shooter and could not think of why anyone would want to shoot him.

The suspect was described as a Hispanic teenager, 5-foot-10 and about 140 to 160 pounds, wearing a hat, blue and white striped shirt, and jeans.

Officers found seven spent .40 caliber shell casings in the street near Bob's Coffee Shop. Some of the rounds struck the wall next to George's Liquor and one of the windows of the adjacent tire shop.

The shooting took place at the same location of the fatal January 2005 shooting that took the life of Sgt. Howard Stevenson and seriously wounded then Officer Sam Ryno.

Anyone with information on the shooting is urged to call Ceres Police Detectives at 538-5672.