An investigation is ongoing Monday after a pair of 18-year-old suspects were arrested following a weekend shooting in La Quinta.
Deputies responded to gunshot reports in the 79000 block of Paseo Del Rey shortly after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, according to a statement from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
While searching the area, the deputies were notified of a 17-year-old male who had been taken to a local hospital with “injuries consistent with a gunshot wound,” according to sheriff’s officials. The teenager was later pronounced dead.
Following an investigation, deputies arrested Elijah Alfredo Martinez, a Bermuda Dunes resident, and Dominick Cruz Venecia, a Coachella resident. They were both booked into the John Benoit Detention Center in Indio on suspicion of murder, according to sheriff’s officials. Both were held on a $1 million bail.
Cruz and Venecia are both scheduled to make initial court appearances Wednesday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, according to Riverside County records.
Anyone with additional information was encouraged to contact Investigator D. Brown with the Central Homicide Unit at 951-955-1777 or Investigator J. Bugarin with the Thermal Sheriff’s Station at 760-863-8990.