2 Men Slain in Separate Shooting Incidents

Two men have been killed and one was wounded in two separate shootings in the northeastern corner of the San Fernando Valley, officials said Thursday.

In the first attack, at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, one of two men in a tan pickup truck opened fire as they drove past a group of men sitting in front of a house in San Fernando, said Lt. Dan Peavy, a homicide detective with the San Fernando Police Department.

Michael Beltran, 37, of Mission Hills was killed in that attack and a 45-year-old San Fernando resident was wounded. The injured man was treated at a local hospital and released.

Neither man was a gang member, Peavy said.

In another attack, a 23-year-old Tujunga man was shot to death at 10 p.m. Wednesday in the 10600 block of Leolang Avenue in Sunland after a brief struggle with two rival gang members, Los Angeles police said.

Det. Frank Bishop of the Foothill Station homicide unit said the motive for the attack was unclear.

“We don’t know how they encountered each other or if they knew each other,” Bishop said.

The victim, whose name was not released pending notification of next of kin, was shot several times in the upper body, Bishop said.

The two shootings appeared to be unrelated, police said.