A 51-year-old man was hospitalized early today after a bullet tore through the wall separating two apartment units on the 8400 block of Buckland Street in La Mesa, striking him as he was inside his own home. Police say he was not the intended target of the gunfire. A suspect who allegedly fled the scene and pointed a firearm at officers during the search was later taken into custody.
La Mesa police received a report of shots fired around 3:38 a.m. at the Buckland Street address, according to FOX 5 San Diego. Officers arriving at the scene found the man suffering from a gunshot wound and determined that the bullet had traveled from one apartment through a wall into the neighboring unit, where he was struck. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment and is expected to survive his injuries.
Lieutenant Scott Hildebrand told the outlet that a preliminary investigation indicated the man was not the intended target of the shooting. The suspect ran from the area before officers could make contact, prompting a search involving neighboring law enforcement agencies. Police believe the suspect pointed a firearm at officers at some point during that search before he was located and taken into custody.
Air Support Called In During the Search
As the search for the fleeing suspect unfolded, the San Diego County Sheriff's Office logged an “Assist Other Agency” request for air support at 3:45 a.m. at the same Buckland Street block, according to the agency's own calls-for-service records. That kind of rapid cross-agency coordination is typical in San Diego County, where departments share dispatch and criminal-record data through the Automated Regional Justice Information System, known as ARJIS, to speed up searches for fleeing suspects.
Officers ultimately recovered a firearm, and Hildebrand said there are no additional outstanding suspects in the case. The investigation remains ongoing, and no formal charges have been announced as of Saturday.
What Charges Could Follow
If prosecutors move forward with charges, the suspect could face serious felony exposure under multiple sections of California law. Maliciously discharging a firearm into an inhabited dwelling is a straight felony under Penal Code Section 246, carrying a state prison sentence of three, five, or seven years, regardless of whether the shooter intended to hit anyone inside, according to attorneys at Cron Israels & Stark.
Separately, pointing a firearm at a peace officer performing official duties can be charged as assault with a firearm on an officer under Penal Code Section 245(d)(1), a felony punishable by four, six, or eight years in state prison, with additional enhancements possible for personal use of a firearm, per Eisner Gorin LLP. Prosecutors could also pursue the lesser wobbler offense under Penal Code Section 246.3, which covers grossly reckless discharge of a firearm that could result in injury or death and can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony carrying up to three years, according to the Law Offices of Anna R. Yum. No charges have yet been filed, and all allegations against the suspect remain unproven pending official court action.
A Neighborhood With a History of Emergency Calls
The Buckland Street complex has drawn major emergency responses before. In July 2015, a two-alarm fire destroyed two apartment units on the same block and caused $325,000 in damage, according to a historical account from the Times of San Diego.
La Mesa, an East County city of roughly 61,000 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau, is led by Police Chief Ray Sweeney, a U.S. Army veteran and longtime department captain who took over the agency in July 2021. The city's own Fiscal Year 2023/24–2024/25 Strategic Plan recorded a baseline violent crime rate of 4.1 per 1,000 residents and logged 57,406 calls for police service in 2023. A mid-year 2024 crime report from the San Diego Association of Governments found that reported crimes against persons in La Mesa rose 2% compared to the first half of 2023.
Saturday's shooting adds to a string of recent violent incidents across San Diego County. Hoodline separately reported that a woman was killed and a man critically hurt in a Mira Mesa garage shooting the same day, and in March, a pre-dawn shooting in Serra Mesa sent a gunman fleeing in a case Hoodline also covered at the time. La Mesa police have handled high-stakes pursuits before, including a May 2025 chase that ended in an officer-involved shooting and multiple felony charges against a suspect identified as Jahlil Johnson.
