Men Sought in Tattoo Parlor Killings : Shooting: Three suspects flee La Puente business after argument leaves two dead and another wounded.

Police were searching Wednesday for a gunman and two other suspects wanted in the slayings of two men at a La Puente tattoo parlor Monday afternoon.

Tattoo artist Nicholas Marquez Sr., 43, of Hacienda Heights and Robert Jesse Rodriguez, 37, were struck by several bullets fired by an unidentified man about 2:31 p.m. after angry words were exchanged at Tattoo Land on Amar Road.

Both died at the scene about 15 minutes later, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office reported.

A third man, Stephen Perez, 30, of Hacienda Heights was struck in the back and staggered around the corner to a Payless Shoe Store on North Hacienda Boulevard, where he pushed open the door and fell to the floor, said store manager Juan Estrada.

“He was saying, ‘I’m shot, I’m shot’ over and over and holding his back. Then he fell down on the floor and I dialed 911,” said Estrada, 31, of West Covina.

Perez was taken by ambulance to Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina where he remains in fair condition and is expected to recover, said hospital spokeswoman Catherine Habel.

Sgt. Bob Stoneman of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the gunman and two other male suspects immediately fled the tattoo parlor after the shootings.

Though some employees of a furniture warehouse next door to the shooting scene reported a “suspicious character” with green-dyed hair lurking around the front of the tattoo parlor, investigators still have no solid descriptions of the suspects. Witnesses who were in the tattoo parlor during the slayings said there was an argument before the shooting, but said they didn’t know what the argument was about and could not give a description of the suspects.

“We’re searching for them now, but we don’t have any better description than we’re looking for three males involved in the shooting,” Stoneman said.

Estrada and other business owners in the strip mall complex where the tattoo parlor is located reported no previous violent incidents and described the area as quiet.