An 18-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with a series of deadly drive-by shootings this month, joining two suspects who were detained just hours after the murders, The Los Angeles Times reported. the Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced.
Prosecutors also announced murder charges against two of the suspects in two fatal shootings in November.
Four people were shot to death on February 11 and 12 within a five-mile radius. The victims were attacked at random in the cities of Cudahy, Huntington Park and Bell and in unincorporated Los Angeles County, authorities say.
Law enforcement arrested Gary Garcia Jr., 42, and Timberland Wayne McKneely, 20, less than 24 hours after the murders. Days later, Deair Fleming Delerence, 17, was arrested as a third suspect, according to a Dist. Attorney news release. George Gascón's office.
On Thursday, the district attorney's office announced murder charges against Joseivan Mendoza, 18, as the fourth suspect in the February shootings. Prosecutors also revealed two additional murder charges for the killings of two men, ages 30 and 28, in an unincorporated part of the county on Nov. 24. McKneely and Mendoza were named as the alleged shooters.
In total, the suspects killed six people, prosecutors alleged. Four were killed in the span of a few hours in southeastern Los Angeles County, including 14-year-old Javier Pedraza Jr., who was shot to death outside his elementary school in Cudahy in the early hours of Sept. 12. February. The other victims were 24 -Kevin Parada, aged; Josué Ramírez, 27, and Omar Mara, 43, according to the prosecutor's office.
“Last week, our office charged two men with the murder of four innocent people, including a child,” Gascón said in a statement. “This week, we charged a juvenile in connection with those four murders and filed additional charges against Mr. McKneely and another man for the tragic murders of two more men.”
Delerence is scheduled to appear in court in late March and is charged with four counts of murder and two counts of attempted intentional, deliberate and premeditated murder, according to the district attorney's office. Two other people were shot during the shootings on February 11 and 12, including a 13-year-old boy. Mendoza is charged with two counts of murder.
