Police Seek Leads in Slayings of 3 Men

Long Beach homicide detectives scrambled Wednesday in search of witnesses to an execution-style triple murder in a north Long Beach parking lot Tuesday night, but said they had not determined the motive for the slayings.

Investigators identified the victims as Perfecto Jaramillo, 46, of Long Beach, Armando Jaramillo, 26, and Jose Francisco Jimenez, 19. It was not clear to authorities where two of the victims resided or if they were related.

But police said the victims were not known to be gang members and were not wearing gang-affiliated clothes, said Cpl. Harry Erickson. He said police had not ruled out the possibility that it was a random attack.

An officer in the area about 9 p.m. heard shots fired and discovered the bodies lying next to a concrete wall at one edge of the dimly lit parking lot behind a 99-Cents Only store in the 5500 block of Atlantic Avenue. All three had been shot in the head. Two were pronounced dead at the scene. The third died at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

Police said it was unlikely that anyone in the discount store, which closed around the same time as the shooting, witnessed the attack because their view would have been blocked by a car next to the victims. Investigators still are seeking other witnesses. An apartment complex and a few small houses sit across the street from the parking lot, opposite the store.

On Wednesday, the store was open for business, ringing up purchases for shoppers while remnants of crime scene tape whipped in the breeze from a post outside. Many people who stopped to discuss the shooting said they had become accustomed to such violence in the northern sectors of the city and that they would continue to shop at the store.

“It’s going on all over the place,” said Melanie Anyon, 52, of Bell Gardens.

Steven Davis, 42, approached the store, where he shops once or twice a week, but spun around and walked back to his car when told of the shooting.

“I’m going home,” he said. Then he paused and decided to go in anyway. “Crime is everywhere,” he said with a sigh.

A six-year resident of the nearby apartment complex, who asked not to be identified, said she had heard the pop of gunfire across the street and that violence seemed to be spreading into her neighborhood.

“It’s getting closer now,” she said. “It’s getting close to home.”