Police Identify 1 of 2 Shooting Victims

Police identified a woman who was gunned down on a shopping trip to Van Nuys as 32-year-old Magdalena Sandoval of Panorama City.

She may have been the accidental victim of a gang shooting, police said Monday.

Witnesses told police Sandoval was walking to a store about 3:30 Sunday afternoon when someone driving by fatally shot her, said Det. Richard Yep of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

Yep said investigators have not determined why Sandoval was shot in broad daylight between Blythe Street Park and the Van Nuys Boulevard shopping district.

The shooters probably were aiming at a group of young men standing near Sandoval, he said.

“She was an innocent, we believe,” Yep said.

Police are looking for four men believed to be involved in that incident.

Authorities still have not identified a homeless man who was shot and killed Sunday following an argument in a transient encampment gated by abandoned shopping carts beneath the San Diego Freeway at Victory Boulevard and Haskell Avenue. Police have no suspects, Yep said.

Another resident of the encampment, Pepe Jaramillo, said the victim argued with another man shortly before the shooting.

“I don’t know why they were fighting,” Jaramillo said.

Anyone with information regarding either of the shootings is asked to call Van Nuys Division homicide detectives at (818) 756-8377.