Police in Menlo Park were taking action Sunday night after a man was shot and killed in front of his terrified wife.

Menlo Park police stepped up patrols in the city's Belle Haven area after the Saturday evening slaying that found the victim ambushed at his car.

On Sunday evening, a candle marked the spot where 42-year-old Carey Cudlip of Newark was shot. Friends called him "Hollywood."

Cudlip has been visiting people at a house in East Menlo Park.

"Hollywood was already dead on the ground," said a resident at the home named Juan. "I was sleeping right here. He touched me on my head like to say goodbye to me."

Cudlip had barely made it to his car when he was attacked.

"I looked back and said goodbye to him, and he left outside," remembered Juan. "Then I heard an argument, and a gunshot, like 'Boom!'"

As Cudlip lay dying in the street, his wife ran from the car to the house, pounding on the door for help as residents hid inside in fear.

"Scattered jewelry out in the street," said Menlo Park Police Chief Chief Lee Violett. "I believe her purse might have been taken."

Police weren't sure if the shooting was a random robbery or a targeted hit. The two suspects sprinted away from the scene.

The shooting was the latest in a string of violent incidents in the area. November began with a spray of gunfire on the same street, wounding four people.

A week ago around the corner from the site of Saturday’s shooting, two homes were riddled with bullets, though no one was hurt. Police said those incidents were gang related.

It's a reality many residents are reluctant to face.

"We don't have gangs here in Menlo Park," said longtime resident Ora McMullen. "I've been here since 1964 and never locked my door. Not ever."

But now, violence is at their doorsteps, leaving adults to explain bloodstained pavement and memorial candles to a neighborhood full of children.

"It's getting too close to home. We never had that," said McMullen. "All of a sudden [there are] all these shootings. It's heartbreaking."

Cudlip is Menlo Park's second homicide of the year. The first was an alleged teenage gang member in June.

The gang most entrenched in the area goes by the name "Taliban," but police weren't linking Cudlip's killing to gang activity just yet.