Two separate, unrelated shooting incidents occurred in Long Beach over the weekend, leaving two men dead and two more with non-life threatening injuries.
The first murder occurred on Friday night at around 7:30PM on Ohio Ave, just south of Anaheim St. According to Nancy Pratt with the Long Beach Police Department, two groups of males were on the street when they were involved in a confrontation and one subject pulled out a gun and fired several rounds into the other group.
The victim—who is only being identified as a 21-year-old male—was shot in the torso and was pronounced dead at the hospital late Friday night. The incident is being investigated as gang related, though a suspect is still at large.
A second shooting occurred Saturday night at Cherry Park in Bixby Knolls when two men walked up to a BBQ around 11:30PM and opened fire on the group. It does not appear that a confrontation occurred prior to the suspects opening fire, according to Pratt, however, three people were shot in the incident.
Two victims—a 39 year-old male and a 41 year-old female, both from Long Beach—sustained non life-threatening injuries. The third, identified as 32-year-old Branson Foster of Paramount, was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. The suspects are being described as teenaged or early-20s Pacific Islanders. They did not appear to be gang affiliated.
Anyone with information regarding either of these murders is urged to contact Long Beach Police Homicide Detectives Scott Lasch and Donald Goodman at (562) 570-7244. Anonymous tips may be submitted via text or web by visiting www.tipsoft.com.