OAKLAND — A Richmond man arrested in a shooting early Saturday outside a Laurel district bar that left one man dead and the suspect’s brother among four other people wounded, has been charged with murder and multiple counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, according to authorities and court records.
Peter Travenia, 34, was charged Tuesday in the shootings that happened about 12:50 a.m. Saturday outside the Laurel Lounge at 38th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard.
Killed was Mario Perez, 46, of San Leandro, who was at the bar with other family members after earlier celebrating a relative’s birthday at a restaurant. Perez’s brother and sister-in-law were among those wounded as was Travenia’s brother, who worked at the bar, and the bar owner, authorities said.
Authorities said for some reason Peter Travenia was angry and was being unruly outside the bar and that the victims had been trying to defuse the situation that had started to get physical before he pulled a gun and started shooting at them.
He fled on foot but was arrested a few blocks away and the gun was recovered.
Perez, an electrician and maintenance worker at St. Felicitas Catholic School in San Leandro, and his family were well known and well liked at the bar.
A GoFundMe account set up for the education of his two sons said in part he was “an amazing family man and a great friend. Our lives will never be the same again. Mario was the kind of person that was the life of every party, made everyone feel like they mattered in his life, would take the shirt off his back to help a friend, was extremely hardworking, and loved everyone, no matter where they came from or who they were.”
Father Jayson Landeza, a former associate pastor at St. Felicitas and a family friend, said Perez “had the biggest heart in the world. He was fun loving, generous and giving. He was just a great guy.”
Meghan Jorgensen, principal at the pre-kindergarten to eighth grade school that both of Perez’s sons graduated from, called Perez “amazing” and said he was more than an employee. She said he would be a DJ at school events and help anyone, including students and their families, faculty members and parish members with any issues they had. “Anyone who needed him could count on him,” Jorgensen said. “He was a friend and a colleague. He was one of us.”
As of Wednesday afternoon. the GofFundMe account had raised $23,489 toward a $27,000 goal. It can be accessed at https://www.gofundme.com › mario-perez-sr-memorial-education-fund