On the night of 14 May 2025 Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office deputies were sent to a disconnected 911 call traced to the 82000 block of Mina Road north of Covelo.[1][2]
The caller, an unidentified man, said he needed help for a friend before the line dropped.[1][2]
While deputies searched Mina Road, passers-by told them an unresponsive man lay on Hulls Valley Road about a mile from that intersection.[1][2] In the 23000 block of Hulls Valley Road they found an adult man dead from apparent gunshot wounds at 00:42 on 15 May, with multiple firearms and spent cartridge casings nearby.[1][2]
Deputies followed a blood trail for about a quarter mile to what both accounts described as a large illegal marijuana grow with hoop houses and camp trailers.[1][2]
Separately, a man with gunshot wounds arrived at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley; deputies linked his injuries to the same shooting and had him moved to a hospital outside the county.[1][2] On the morning of 15 May another wounded man was found on Hulls Valley Road several miles away; he told deputies he was shot in the same incident and was airlifted for treatment.[1][2]
By 20 May both survivors were in stable condition and had been interviewed, the sheriff’s office told the Ukiah Daily Journal.[1] Detectives prepared search warrants for the grow and the shooting scene and said evidence pointed to illegal cannabis cultivation controlled by a drug trafficking organization, without naming the group.[1][2]
The sheriff’s office had not yet confirmed the dead man’s identity in these releases and scheduled an autopsy.[1][2] No suspects were identified.[1][2]