A pair of shootings at two gas stations within the same Los Angeles County community, including one that left a 13-year-old boy dead, has residents on edge.
The two shootings, which authorities believe are unrelated, took place at separate gas stations in Pico Rivera this past Thursday and Saturday.
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the victim of Thursday’s shooting, only identified as an adult male, was shot by an unknown assailant at a Shell gas station located at the corner of Washington and Passons boulevards just before 9 p.m.
Officers had blocked off the gas station with crime scene tape and appeared to be centering their investigation on a Chevy Corvette parked next to a gas pump, video from the Citizen App shows.
Further details surrounding this shooting remain limited. It is believed the suspect fled the area on foot.
Just two days later, gunfire erupted at another gas station in the same area – this one a 76 located at the corner of Rosemead and Whittier boulevards, about two miles from Thursday’s incident.
The victim of this shooting, which took place around 11:45 p.m., was identified as a 13-year-old boy who had accompanied his mother to her night shift at the gas station. A woman who knows the mother stopped by the scene on Sunday and told KTLA that she is homeless and brings her son to work frequently.
“She’s homeless and she was living in a shelter in Long Beach and she would bring her son because she didn’t want to leave him there,” Christine Kreimann said. “When she was working with customers, he would come and pick up around the gas station for her.”
Now, in the wake of the recent violence, people who live in the area say they are worried for their safety.
“Over here, [I’m] kind of skeptical,” said Ricardo Almendariz.
When it comes to the motive behind the shootings, Almendariz says it’s hard to piece together.
“It’s kind of like [a case of] mistaken identity or it could have been…somebody just trying to find some way or somehow feel they have something to prove or something,” he said.
Kreimann, meanwhile, seems to be more angry than skeptical.
“That’s pretty chicken s–t, to take a little boy’s life like that,” she said. “He didn’t even get a chance to start his life.”
The suspects in both shootings remain on the run as of Monday morning. No further details on either incident were available.
Anyone with information pertaining to the two shootings is asked to contact the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau: 323-890-5500.
To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visit www.lacrimestoppers.org.
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