In L.A. County, a weekend of lethal violence
At least eight people died in violence across Los Angeles County over the weekend, including five homicides during a 4 1/2 -hour stretch.
Authorities said the slayings did not appear to be connected.
The killings began in Long Beach early Saturday morning, when an unknown assailant approached Isai Jimenez, 30, at 2:55 a.m. as he sat in a restaurant in the 400 block of West Pacific Coast Highway and “shot him several times,” said Long Beach Police Sgt. David Marander. Investigators believe the incident may be gang-related.
About the same time, 28-year-old Carlos Pulido was found with multiple gunshot wounds in a driveway in unincorporated Los Angeles County near Watts. Pulido was shot outside a party he was attending in the 8200 block of Croesus Avenue, said Deputy Ed Hernandez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He died at the scene.
The string of five killings in less than five hours began Saturday about 10:25 p.m., when a 22-year-old man was stabbed in Hawaiian Gardens, and ended Sunday about 2:40 a.m., when a 37-year-old man was shot in the 1300 block of West 94th Street in the Athens area of South Los Angeles, authorities said.
On Sunday afternoon, another victim -- a 16-year-old who was shot at 4th and Soto streets in Los Angeles -- was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds, the coroner’s office said.
The Athens incident was at least the 15th shooting this year in the unincorporated district near the Los Angeles city border, and follows a deadly summer in the area -- eight people were killed in 11 shootings from June to late September, police said.
Authorities released the names of only two of the five victims killed in quick succession late Saturday or early Sunday. The two men, killed in Pico Rivera on Saturday night, were shot in the 3900 block of Aleman Avenue about 10:45 p.m. John Schula, 30, of Montebello was pronounced dead at the scene. The other victim, Manuel Angel Torres, 17, of La Puente, was taken to a hospital, where he died, authorities said.
The string of five quick slayings also included a 20-year-old man killed in an unincorporated area near Whittier about 12:21 a.m. Sunday; he was shot in the 10900 block of Carmenita Road, Hernandez said.
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