Two men suspected in a random shooting spree in southeastern Los Angeles County that left four people dead, including a 14-year-old boy, and two others injured were charged Thursday with four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Gary Garcia Jr., 42, and Timberland Wayne McKneely, 20, are “alleged to have embarked on a random and brutal shooting spree in Bell, Huntington Park, Cudahy and unincorporated areas of L.A. County” on Sunday and Monday, District Attorney George Gascón told reporters during a morning news conference at his downtown Los Angeles headquarters.
“They all appear to have been targeted randomly,” the district attorney said.
The two were set to be arraigned Thursday in a courtroom in Downey on the charges, which include the special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and shooting from a motor vehicle causing death.
Garcia and McKneely could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged, according to Gascón.
Prosecutors will ask that Garcia and McKneely be held without bail, the district attorney said.
According to the sheriff’s department, the first shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. Sunday in the 6000 block of Bear Avenue in Bell. That shooting killed 24-year-old Kevin Parada.
Shortly after midnight Monday morning, another fatal shooting occurred in the 1500 block of East Florence Avenue in the nearby unincorporated Florence-Firestone area. That victim, described only as a Hispanic man, was not immediately identified.
A short time later, two boys — both Hispanic — were shot in the 5000 block of Live Oak Street near Ellen Ochoa Learning Center in Cudahy. One of them, 14-year-old Javier Pedraza Jr. of Cudahy, was pronounced dead at the scene. The second boy was taken to a hospital in what was described as stable condition.
The fourth shooting occurred about 2:40 a.m. in the 6300 block of Santa Fe Avenue in Huntington Park, near Gage Avenue, officials said. That man, also Hispanic, was not immediately identified, but Huntington Park Police Department Chief Cosme Lozano said he was known to be a local homeless man who was “simply walking down the street.”
According to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau Capt. Andrew Meyer, sheriff’s homicide investigators responded to all four shooting scenes, and surveillance video quickly determined that a Honda Pilot SUV was at each location around the time of the attacks.
Sheriff’s officials circulated a law enforcement bulletin, and the vehicle was spotted and stopped Monday afternoon by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, and one suspect — believed to be Garcia — was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder, Meyer said.
Investigators were then able to identify the second suspect, who was arrested by a sheriff’s Special Enforcement Bureau team early Tuesday morning in Compton, according to Meyer.
He said investigators believe the suspects are gang members, but there was no immediate word on a motive for the killings.
Meyer said then that a third suspect may have also been involved in the attacks, but there was no immediate information available on that person’s description.