Penngrove shooting victim ID’d, weapon found

A man wounded in a Penngrove area shooting was identified this week as Jonathan Howlin, 21, of San Rafael, Sonoma County sheriff’s officials said.|

A man wounded in a Penngrove area shooting was identified this week as Jonathan Howlin, 21, of San Rafael, Sonoma County sheriff’s officials said.

Howlin was shot in the chin March 20 by Woodruff Hilton-Bramswig, 22, of Penngrove during a pre-dawn incident on Old Redwood Highway north of Ely Road North, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Hilton-Bramswig was released Tuesday from the Sonoma County Jail following his arrest last week on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He has not been arraigned and his court appearance was postponed until April 23, Sonoma County District Attorney staff said.

Sheriff’s officials have not released any information about the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

The investigation began with a 4 a.m. March 20 phone call from a neighbor reporting that a shooting had taken place at the Old Redwood Highway residence. Deputies found blood and other evidence that a shooting occurred at the property, officials said.

Earlier, at 3:44 a.m., Petaluma Valley Hospital staff alerted Petaluma police that a man, later identified as Howlin, came in seeking treatment for a gunshot wound, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The volunteer search and rescue team were called in to help find a handgun believed to have been disposed by the suspects in the thick brambles near a creek about a quarter mile south of the residence. A Petaluma public works employee assisting the search by clearing brush found the gun, sheriff’s officials said.

It wasn’t clear how detectives connected Hilton-Bramswig to the shooting.

Daveon Hicks, 20, of Fairfax was also arrested following the shooting on suspicion of being an accessory to the assault. He was also released from the Sonoma County Jail without being charged.

Anyone with information about the case can call the sheriff’s violent crimes detectives unit at 565-2185.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.

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