Police want to question a man who asked to break a $100 bill
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Police are looking for a man who fired a bullet through a window of a credit union on the corner of Welburn Avenue and Church Street Monday morning, without injuring the employees or customer inside.
A man entered 1st United Federal Credit Union, 8379 Church St., about 11:50am Monday and asked for change for a $100 bill, police said. The teller could not provide the man with change, for unknown reasons. About two minutes after he left the credit union, a shot was fired through a window on the Church Street side of the building, about a foot or two from the ground.
There were at least two people in the credit union at the time, including one customer.
“Everyone’s OK,” Officer Geoff Guerin said as the investigation got under way Monday. “Shaken up, though.”
Shaken up is exactly how Wendy Solorio was feeling as she prepared to leave the credit union just before 12pm, although she was not inside the building when the shots were fired.
“I walked in and they said, ‘Get down!’ ” Solorio said. “So I grabbed (my 3-year-old daughter) and laid down and called 9-1-1.”
But Gilroy police were already being dispatched to the incident.
The credit union closed its doors for the rest of the day and a recording that answered the phone Monday afternoon said it would re-open today.
Meanwhile, police are looking for a white male adult, described as 5-foot-7 inches tall, with very short brown hair – almost bald – and a beard, on suspicion of shooting at an occupied building. He was wearing a white T-shirt at the time of the incident and fled on foot, although in which direction is not known.
Police searched the area after the shooting, but were unable to locate the man.
