Sources: Jesse Parrilla, Nikki Huang murdered, left in burning car in the Bronx in series of gang-related attacks
NEW YORK -- Two people found murdered in a torched car in the Bronx this week, and as CBS2's Andrea Grymes reports, police sources say one of those victims was unknowingly swept up in a series of gang-related attacks.
Police sources believe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Former college basketball player 22-year-old Jesse Parrilla was found murdered with his friend Nikki Huang in a burned-out car in the Bronx early Monday morning.
Sources say both had been shot and the car was set on fire.
Huang's family owns Wa Lung Kitchen on the Lower East Side, where customers have been stopping to pay their respects at a growing memorial.
"I was, like, in shock," Lower East Side resident Evelyn Carbonell said. "I feel so bad for the parents, you know, 'cause now they suffer."
"She was just this great kid that worked there with her folks," Lower East Side resident John Hogan said.
Police sources say Huang had no criminal record but allege she did have an affiliation with a gang. They say she was robbed last Sunday and told some of her gang member friends.
Police sources believe that robbery set off a chain reaction of tit-for-tat gang-related violence -- a deadly shooting in Alphabet City, followed by two people shot on Pike Street on the Lower East Side, then another shooting in Queens, and finally, Parrilla and Huang.
Police suspect they were kidnapped then murdered, their bodies left in the burning car.
Sources say Parrilla, of the Lower East Side, has a clean record and had nothing to do with any of this.
"Insane. It's really insane. This city is getting a little too loose," Hogan said.
So far, no arrests have been made.