A Long Beach man was arrested today in connection with the shooting death of another man in North Long Beach Monday night, police said.
Marco Quintanilla Ortega, 23, was taken into custody Tuesday morning on suspicion of murder after police say witnesses provided a description and vehicle information that led detectives to identify him as the gunman.
Police say the shooting occurred at around 10:30 p.m. in the 4900 block of Long Beach Boulevard, an area with a strip mall half a mile north of Scherer Park.
When officers arrived around 10:35 p.m., they found a man who had been shot multiple times in the upper body, according to the Long Beach Police Department. Officers provided aid to the victim until the Long Beach Fire Department personnel arrived shortly after and pronounced him dead at the scene. He was identified as 26-year Brian Contreras of Long Beach, according to a spokesperson with the coroner’s office.
Detectives located Ortega the next day at around 8 a.m. in the 5500 block of Long Beach Boulevard, less than a mile from where the shooting happened, police said. A gun was recovered during his arrest, but it is not clear if the gun was the same one used in the shooting, according to the LBPD. Ortega is being held at Long Beach City Jail on $2 million bail.
Further details of the shooting were not immediately available.
“At this time, Detectives do not have a motive for the shooting, although it is believed to be gang related,” according to the LBPD.
The LBPD has recorded 21 homicides in 2022, and 15 of those have been the result of gun violence. Of the 15 shooting deaths this year, North Long Beach has seen the most of any other part of the city with eight.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with more information from the LBPD including Ortega’s arrest.