On Nov. 2nd, Councilman Bill Well’s home in El Cajon was the target of a shooting by an unknown shooter. A shot was fired through an upstairs window that penetrated the screen and shattered the glass door of the bathroom shower. Wells and his family were absent from the home at the time of the shooting.
On Nov. 2nd, Councilman Bill Well’s home in El Cajon was the target of a shooting by an unknown shooter. A shot was fired through an upstairs window that penetrated the screen and shattered the glass door of the bathroom shower. Wells and his family were absent from the home at the time of the shooting.
According to Wells, around 6:00 p.m. that evening, he received a phone call from his houseguest saying that she heard glass shattering from the upstairs room. Upon returning home, Wells examined the scene and noticed a hole through the window screen where a trajectory had entered causing the damage.
The following day, a report was made by El Cajon City police who examined the scene and determined that the likely weapon used was a high powered pellet rifle, Wells said.
“We surmised that the shot had come from the roof of the insurance building located directly across the street from my house. There are approximately 60 meters from the roof to the window and the trajectory of a bullet would be aligned with the shower door,” Wells said.
The building has a built in ladder on the side making it convenient for someone to climb to the top. The conjecture is that the shot had to have come from the roof of the insurance building in order for it to go straight into the window.
According to police, it is impossible for the round to have been shot from the street level because had it come from that angle, it would have continued on into the ceiling and not hit the window. When police asked Wells, if he knew anybody who would have a motive to carry out this act, Wells said that he suspected his political opponent in the recent city council race, Ben Kalasho to have something to do with it. Police recommended to Wells that the FBI be contacted.
Wells said that he was going to pursue this case as far as he could to ensure that the responsible culprit was brought to justice. Wells said that Kalasho had been aggressively warring against him throughout the race and that he had even sent out a flyer two days after the shooting took place to the voters accusing him of being a criminal. He added that the flyer further accused him of being a liar and a cheat and it had bullet holes through it.
Kalasho gave his side of the story, stating that he had no idea that such a shooting had taken place at Wells’ home. He said that he didn’t know where Wells lived, and added that for Wells to suggest that he had anything to do with it was “mind blowing.” He said that he had called Wells a criminal only because eye-witness Karen Otter had seen some of Bill’s friends taking down Kalasho’s campaign signs while Wells sat inside the truck. Wells denies having been present at any sign removal nor, having given anyone authority to take any candidate’s signs down.
“I don’t have the resources to bash another candidate. There were five other candidates involved in this race besides me. Why am I being singled out?” Kalasho said. “Even though, I am familiar with the flyer Wells mentions, I didn’t have anything to do with it. I briefly saw it on my cell phone when I looked at the East County Magazine political news section,” Kalasho said. He added that to date he had not been contacted by the El Cajon Police Department, and that he did not expect they would contact him going forward.
Kalasho said that some of Wells family indicated that to him this situation sounded like a domestic violence case and that in some instances, the crime is found to be committed by a family member. He then referred to a recently reported El Cajon crime in which the husband killed his wife. “It was at first believed to have been a racial crime but instead it was discovered that the husband was found to have committed the murder,” he said.
When asked if he thought that perhaps, Wells had shot into his own window or, perhaps his wife had, Kalasho replied, “I am not saying that, I am just saying that it might have been a domestic violence situation.” However, he added that he did not want to speculate. “Let the police department do their job,” he said.
Kalasho said that he was not going to tolerate being accused of a crime, and that if Wells continued to slander, libel, or in anyway defame his image, and reputation he was going to take action. “I am going to sue and press charges against Wells,” he added.
“If a crime occurs in El Cajon, Wells can’t go around accusing people, without evidence based on political rhetoric and political advantage. “My reputation is very important to me, I have an image to protect,” Kalasho said. He hopes to continue to pursue his goal for public office. He said his supporters are urging him to continue on and perhaps even run for El Cajon mayor. A call to the El Cajon Police Department for comment wasn’t returned by the time the story went to press.
Editor’s note: A follow up to this story will run in a future edition of The East County Californian.
