They rent Airbnbs to party. In suburban Sacramento, good times have turned violent

Chancelor Fields-Colbert, 19, an Alaska native and a freshman defensive back at Sierra College, piled into a car with his friends and football teammates for what they thought would be a fun night of partying.

The party that stretched in to the early morning hours of July 21 had been planned and promoted on social media for nearly a month, and a 100-year-old Fair Oaks mansion recently converted to a short-term rental on Airbnb was rented out for the occasion, two of Fields-Colbert’s teammates told The Sacramento Bee. At least 60 people were there, but the neighbors never heard a peep beyond the walls of the 5,000-square-foot home surrounded by thick brush and towering bamboo shoots.

Fields-Colbert’s life was cut short there at the gathering when a man wearing a red hooded sweatshirt showed up and opened fire.

Last week’s shooting was the latest in a growing trend of wild rental parties in the Sacramento region attracting uninvited guests and devolving into violence. In the last two months, at least three people have been injured and now one man killed in shootings at Airbnb rentals in Elk Grove, Rocklin and Fair Oaks. Violence has also broken out in recent months at parties in Reno, San Diego and Seattle.

Airbnb, a short-term vacation rental site headquartered in San Francisco, has grown in popularity in recent years, allowing property owners around the world to list homes and rooms for rent to travelers for competitive prices. Sacramento currently has more than 300 locations listed on Airbnb, according to its website.

Maximum occupancy for each property is determined by the home owner as well as the house rules. Airbnb asks guests not to break the rules in its Community Standards guide, but it is up to the hosts to set the rules for parties and gatherings.

“In addition to advising hosts on the importance of communicating with guests about their plans in advance, we encourage hosts to outline clear rules regarding minimum night stays, noise, parties and events,” said Airbnb spokesman Charlie Urbancic in a statement emailed to The Bee. “When we receive reports that a listing has violated our Community Standards by creating a persistent neighborhood nuisance, Airbnb can take action which may include removing the listing from our platform.”

Last month, a man was injured at an Airbnb graduation party in the 8900 block of Gables Mill Place in Elk Grove, police reported.

The party was brought to an abrupt end on the night of June 1. A man in a red hooded sweatshirt walked up to a group of party goers in the home’s front yard and started shooting. Someone in the group started shooting back, police said. A man was hit in the leg by a stray bullet and hospitalized.

No arrests have been made, said Officer Jason Jimenez, spokesman for the Elk Grove Police Department.

Less than a week later in Rocklin, more shots were fired at a party at a house also rented through Airbnb in the 4800 block of Grove Street. Two people were shot and taken to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries by a suspect also described as a man in a red hooded sweatshirt, police said.

The investigation is still ongoing and no arrests have been made, said Lt. Scott Horrillo, spokesman for the Rocklin Police Department.

Following the shooting, the Rocklin City Council began drafting restrictions for short-term vacation rentals after a homeowner expressed concern for her family’s safety because they lived across the street from the rental house.

The City Council is tentatively scheduled to discuss the restrictions at its Aug. 13 meeting, said Rocklin Mayor Joe Patterson.

“I’m not concerned about families coming to town and enjoying the amenities we have in Rocklin, but how do we grapple with people having parties there that jeopardize the safety of residents or the attendees of such functions?” Patterson said.

“It’s a public safety issue,” he added.

In Fair Oaks, neighbors told The Bee they were unaware the house on the corner of Fair Oaks Boulevard and Sunset Avenue where Fields-Colbert was shot had been converted into a vacation rental.

Despite sitting at the intersection of two busy streets, the neighborhood is quiet, lined with a handful of century-old homes. And the 5,000-square-foot house is barely visible from the street, tucked behind a gas station and surrounded on all sides by brush and trees.

When a Sacramento Bee reporter knocked on the door Thursday afternoon, new short-term renters were there. A lock box was mounted next to the new door and the property is no longer listed on Airbnb.

David Stone, 20, the teammate who threw the party Saturday night told The Bee that the house was booked for him by two other people. He helped plan a going away party before he left to play football in Texas.

“It’s unreal,” he said. “It’s definitely something nobody wants to experience, especially when it’s a celebration and someone dies at the party.”

Stone said he manned the door for about the first hour to make sure only invited guests came in. When he left to join the party, he told people at the door “if they don’t know me, they shouldn’t be getting in,” he said.

He was on the roof at about 1:30 a.m. talking to friends when he heard gunshots.

In video obtained by The Bee, a man in light blue jeans and red hoodie can be seen walking toward an open door of the house. He then pulls a gun from his pants and points it through the door.

Ron Logston, who lives across the street, reported hearing seven shots.

When the shooting broke out, inside the house it was “complete chaos” and “people getting trampled on,” Stone said.

Fields-Colbert was found in the street suffering from a gunshot wound when deputies arrived, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office said. He was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Another teammate, Drew Daniels, 21, was not at the party but saw it heavily promoted on social media, especially Snapchat, a social media platform where people can send one another pictures that disappear after time, and post pictures for friends or the public to see.

Stone posted publicly about the party on his Snapchat account, according to Daniels.

“If a party starts getting big and exciting, people start hearing about it,” he said. “People just started talking on social.”

Daniels said he doesn’t blame Stone for Fields-Colbert’s death. But he thinks posting about the party on Snapchat might not have been the best idea.

“That’s a mistake that you can’t make because you never know who’s going to see it,” he said. “Some people just go into a party trying to fight or drink until they pass out.”

Jimenez, the spokesman for the Elk Grove Police Department and a police officer for 13 years, said big house parties like this aren’t uncommon. In the past they were held in vacant houses, but now they’re cropping up in Airbnbs more often. The key similarity is that the people throwing parties don’t live in or own the houses, he said.

“Now with social media too, sometimes those parties get larger than the hosts anticipated,” Jimenez said.

Correction: The Fair Oaks shooting occurred in the early morning hours of July 21. A previous version of the story incorrectly reported the sequence of events began on June 20.

This story was originally published July 28, 2019 at 5:00 AM.