Police Arrest Teen in Store Shooting After Prior Case

Fairfield police arrested a 17-year-old on suspicion of killing Constance Hages and injuring six others at a Spirit Halloween store, then said he had previously been arrested, sentenced and released in connection with a separate shooting in 2025. The teenager, a Suisun City resident, wasn't named because he is a minor. Police haven't provided further details about the earlier case.

Daniela Seabra Rios and her son were waiting in a car across from the store when she saw a “sea of people running and screaming,” she told The Times in a text message late Friday. They ducked onto the car floor and stayed there until police responded. Families had been shopping for last-minute Halloween supplies when gunfire sent people fleeing.

The people caught in the gunfire

Police said the shooting happened Friday, Oct. 30, at the Solano Town Center in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hages, 31, was killed. Six other people were injured, and one remained in critical condition as of Sunday, Nov. 1, Michelle Belyea, a spokesperson for the Fairfield Police Department, said at a news conference Monday.

Chara Brazley, a Santa Rosa resident, said her 24-year-old daughter called in a panic from her job at Ulta Beauty in the shopping center. Her daughter said she heard several loud gunshots as employees prepared to close for the night. Brazley said her children had gone to the mall for decades but had “never experienced anything like this before.”

Police said the suspect entered Spirit Halloween at around 8:30 p.m. and saw a customer investigators believe was his intended target. “The suspect then produced a firearm and fired multiple rounds at the victim,” police said. Gunfire struck seven people in total. The suspect fled within minutes, just as officers arrived.

Police identify and arrest a suspect

Fairfield police said they identified the boy as a suspect within hours of an initial 911 call. A police school resource officer reviewed surveillance footage, recognized him as a former student and passed that information to detectives. Detectives arrested him at a residence in Suisun City on Monday, Nov. 2.

The earlier case, according to the Fairfield Police Department, involved a shooting after hours in the parking lot of a local high school. Police said the boy was arrested, sentenced and released in connection with that case. The department didn't provide further details in the material available, leaving the public without an account of the charges or sentence.

The minor now faces charges of murder and attempted murder in Friday's shooting. The Solano County district attorney's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late Monday. The report gives no further account of what happened in court in the earlier case, or of any community-led response to either shooting.

The official account

The police account describes how surveillance footage, a school resource officer and detectives led to the arrest. It also describes an armed response at the shopping center, where officers arrived as the suspect fled. The source doesn't report any electoral or legislative proposals, or identify nonprofit groups involved in responding to the shooting.

“Although an arrest has been made, our work is not over,” Fairfield police said. “The criminal justice process will now move forward, and we remain committed to ensuring accountability for the lives impacted by this senseless act of violence.” The statement lays out the department's next step: a criminal case. It doesn't answer the questions left open about the earlier shooting or the people injured at the store.