2 killed, 1 wounded in shooting in La Sierra neighborhood of Riverside
Two people were killed and a third wounded in a shooting in the La Sierra neighborhood of Riverside early Wednesday morning.
The first reports of the shooting came in at about 2:15 p.m. in the 11000 block of Pierce Street. Officers arriving on the scene found two people suffering from gunshot wounds.
One person was pronounced dead at the scene and the second was taken to a local hospital. Riverside police spokesman Officer Ryan Railsback said the person taken to the hospital is in serious but stable condition.
When Deepak Aggarwan, co-owner of Budget Auto Wholesale, walked into his office Wednesday morning he found the walls ridden with bullet holes.
"We work here so there is a good chance that it could have struck us," said Aggarwan.
Several minutes after the shooting, officers were flagged down as they drove on the 91 Freeway offramp at 14th Street by a vehicle. The group inside said a man in their car had been shot and stopped breathing. The officers performed CPR on the man until paramedics arrived and rushed him to a hospital, where he died.
Investigators determined that the gunshot victim in the car had also been shot at the Pierce Street location.
Police say they have been called to the Pierce Street location just last year, when the former property owner learned the former tenant had been caught hosting gatherings involving illegal electronic gambling tables.
The location's neighbor, Budget Auto Wholesale co-owner Deepak Aggarwan, said the place was always locked -- but the bullet holes he found in his office walls Wednesday morning were a stark reminder that someone must have been there.
"We work here, so there is a good chance [the bullets] could have struck us," he said.
Pierce Street, west of La Sierra Avenue, was shut down for the shooting investigation and detectives are trying to determine if Wednesday's shooting is connected to last year's criminal activity.
"We need to figure out if these are the same people we looked at last year," Railsback said. "We know it's the same location, but the same type of activity or if it's completely different or not, we don't know."