The shocking, execution-style killing of a man in Southern California last week stemmed from an ongoing business dispute between the victim and one of his abductors, prosecutors revealed on Monday.
The district attorney in San Bernardino County shared the details at a news conference as he announced a felony murder charge against one of the suspects, Jianquan Bo of Irvine, Calif., for his role in the killing of Shukur Aikebaer.
According to the authorities, Mr. Bo, 66, and his brother, Zhengfeng Bo, 67, led sheriff’s deputies on a brief car chase last Wednesday after kidnapping Mr. Aikebaer, 60, from his home in Chino Hills, an upper-middle-class community roughly 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
Public filings show that Mr. Aikebaer and Zhengfeng Bo were business associates in an Irvine-based investment company called Panshi Inc. It was unclear what relationship Jianquan Bo had with the victim.
After the chase ended in a residential area about a mile from Mr. Aikebaer’s home, Jianquan Bo exited the car and surrendered to the authorities. But his brother dashed to the back of the vehicle and fatally shot Mr. Aikebaer, who had been stuffed into the trunk. The sheriff’s deputies then opened fire and Zhengfeng Bo died at the scene, officials said.
Officials have said that the deputies did not know Mr. Aikebaer was in the trunk until after the shooting. He also died at the scene.
“Obviously there’s been some type of dispute, perhaps either decision-making within the business or some financial loss that led to a dispute,” Jason Anderson, the district attorney, said on Monday.
Jianquan Bo, the passenger and sole survivor, has been charged with murder with the special circumstance of kidnapping, which prosecutors say could lead to the death penalty. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether he had legal representation.
“There’s a potential the way it’s charged that we could see life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, but those decisions are never made at this stage,” Mr. Anderson said.
The incident began around 10:14 p.m. last Wednesday after the authorities were dispatched to reports of gun shots and a man screaming at the victim’s home. Sheriff’s deputies responding to the call encountered the Bos’ vehicle speeding away from the scene.
According to the San Bernardino County sheriff, investigators believe that Mr. Aikebaer was injured outside his home before being put into the Bos’ car, but that he was killed by the shot that Zhengfeng Bo fired into the trunk. Home surveillance footage obtained by KTLA, a local TV news outlet, appears to show the moment that the driver strides to the back of the car.
The county district attorney said that even though Jianquan Bo did not fatally shoot Mr. Aikebaer, his office had charged him with murder because “Mr. Bo knew exactly what the plan was when they went to the victim’s home, what was going to be done, participated in what led up to the death.”
Family friends and relatives, including Mr. Aikebaer’s wife, watched the news conference on Monday in a separate, private room at the county sheriff’s station in Chino Hills. Many of them were dressed in full black attire.
“I want to be very candid and say that this has had a tremendous, tremendous impact on the family of the victim,” Mr. Anderson said, speaking in front of a bank of TV cameras. “Just a wonderful family that we’ve had the opportunity to meet so far and to coordinate in a process that no one should have to go through.”
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