Pico Rivera: Double homicide ends year of relative calm

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John Schula, 30, a Latino male from Montebello, and a 17-year-old boy were fatally wounded in what sheriff’s deputies described as a gang-related shooting in the 3900 block of Aleman Avenue at 10:45 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18.

The double homicide ended a year of relative calm in Pico Rivera. It took place near where 57-year-old grandmother Maria Hicks was gunned down in August 2007 after trying to intervene when taggers were spray-painting graffiti on a wall in her neighborhood.

Witnesses told Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide investigators that Schula was talking with another man in the front yard of a residence when several males in a car drove up, got out and confronted the victim. Words escalated to fisticuffs before multiple shots were fired.

The other victim was identified as Manuel Angel Torres, 17, of La Puente, who was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s homicide bureau at (323) 890-5500.

—Andrew Blankstein