Cupertino Shooting Suspect Shot in Sunnyvale

The suspect in the killing of three people in a shooting at the Lehigh Cement Company plant near Cupertino early Wednesday appears to have been shot and killed in Sunnyvale this morning.

Sheriff's Sgt. Jose Cardoza said authorities shot a suspect near 934 Lorne Way in Sunnyvale.

Sunnyvale spokesman John Pilger said he has heard there has been a shooting in that area but couldn't yet confirm whether it involved the suspect, Shareef Allman.

Media reports have stated that Allman has been killed, and a resident of Lorne Way said police had come to her door after the shooting to make sure everyone was OK. The neighbor said she asked them, "Did you guys get the guy?" and the officers said yes. 

Another neighbor, Helen Bernaciak, who lives two doors down from the home where the shooting occurred, said she woke up to a terrible commotion. "Oh my God, it was horrible," she said.

Afterward she heard sirens and police began to show up in droves.          "All I can see is so many policemen," Bernaciak said around 8 a.m. "I don't know where there are any others anywhere, they're all here."

She said a woman who lives in the home closest to where the shooting happened was taken outside with her baby and put in a police car. Police later escorted a man to the patrol car to join them, she said.

Bernaciak said police had searched her backyard on Wednesday but she didn't believe Allman was in her neighborhood.

"I wouldn't have been able to sleep last night if I thought he was that close to me," she said.

On Wednesday night, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office identified the three men who were fatally shot at the cement plant, located at 24001 Stevens Creek Blvd. just outside of Cupertino.

John Robert Vallejos, 51, and Mark Munoz, 59, both of San Jose, and Manuel Guadalupe Pinon, 48, of Newman, died after Allman, 47, showed up for an early morning meeting at the plant and opened fire on other employees,
according to the sheriff's office.

Six others were wounded in the shooting.

After fleeing the worksite, Allman allegedly attempted to take a woman's car at gunpoint shortly before 7 a.m. in a Hewlett-Packard company parking lot near the intersection of Homestead Road and Tantau Avenue. When the woman refused, he shot her once before fleeing, sheriff's officials said.

The woman was taken to a hospital to be treated for her injuries, which are not considered life-threatening.

A Mercury sedan associated with Allman was later found at an Arco gas station at the intersection of Wolfe and Homestead roads, and police began a manhunt in the neighborhood that ended with the shooting early this
morning.

—By Bay City News Service