Long Beach police say they are investigating a drive-by shooting early this morning in the Willmore area where three men were targeted but nobody was wounded.
Police said they responded around 2:05 a.m. to reports of shots fired near 7th Street and Daisy Avenue.
At the scene, officers found three men who said multiple people inside a light-colored SUV opened fire on them but missed, hitting their car and an outside carport, LBPD spokeswoman Arantxa Chavarria said in an email.
The shooters fled before police arrived, she said. Two of the victims were inside their own vehicle and the third stood just outside at the time of the shooting, police said. None of them were injured, according to the department.
Gun violence has increased recently in Long Beach. There were 381 shootings in 2020, a spike of about 64% over the previous four-year average of 232 shootings per year.
Police said Tuesday’s shooting is being investigated as possibly gang-related. The LBPD defines gang-related crimes as any crime committed “for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with any criminal street gang.”