No Arrests in Drive-By Killing of Gulf War Soldier

Sheriff’s homicide investigators on Wednesday said no arrests have been made in the drive-by slaying of an Army private who had just arrived for a homecoming party in Baldwin Park after six months of combat in the Persian Gulf.

Cesar Gardea, 19, who was to have celebrated his return from Saudi Arabia with relatives this weekend, was gunned down in the front yard of his cousin’s house Tuesday in a gang-related shooting that also left his cousin dead and two neighbors wounded.

Although officers said neither of the young men belonged to a gang, friends and family said that the cousin, 17-year-old Pablo Paez, dressed like a gang member. There was speculation in the neighborhood that the suspects were from an El Monte gang that is a rival of the gang that claims the western edge of Baldwin Park as its turf.