A 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of killing another 15-year-old boy in an afternoon shooting that sparked a pair of SWAT searches in North Long Beach earlier this week, police said today.
The shooting occurred around 12:30 p.m. Thursday near Cedar Avenue and Plymouth Street.
A neighbor told the Long Beach Post he heard a single gunshot and went outside to see the victim lying in the street. He was taken by paramedics to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Believing the shooter could still be nearby, SWAT teams twice scoured the neighborhood but came up empty. Police said homicide detectives “quickly identified the suspect as a 15-year-old male resident of Long Beach” and made a plan to arrest him.
“I am deeply troubled by the killing of a 15-year-old and it is extremely alarming that the suspect believed responsible is also 15 years old,” said LBPD Chief Wally Hebeish. “The Long Beach Police Department will never allow youth violence to be normalized in our community.”
The boy, whom police did not identify because he’s a juvenile, was arrested in Lakewood on Friday and booked into Long Beach Jail on suspicion of murder and being a minor in possession of a firearm. He was then taken to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, where he was being held without bail, police said.
Police said the motive “remains under investigation.”
The victim has not been publicly identified.
City News Service contributed to this report.