UCI grad student and a friend killed in LA County shooting

UCI grad student and a friend killed in LA County shooting

by City News Service

A UCI student and another man were killed, with a third getting wounded, in a drive-by shooting near the border of South Los Angeles and the unincorporated Florence area Wednesday night.

Authorities were seeking two suspects.

Deputies responded to the 1100 block of East 68th Street, near Central Avenue, at about 7:05 p.m. Wednesday and found one man dead and two others suffering gunshot wounds who were taken to a hospital, where one died, said Deputy Erin Liu of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The third victim was treated and released, Liu said.

According to authorities, 24-year-old Jose Flores Velazquez died at the scene, and 24-year-old Alfredo Carrera of Los Angeles died at a hospital.

Velazquez and Carrera had grown up six houses apart on the street where they were shot. The shooting reportedly occurred in Carrera’s driveway after they had parked an SUV.

Velazquez was a physics doctoral student at UC Irvine and had his sights set on a job at NASA, and Carrera was about to become a first-time father with his girlfriend.

“Jose was an incredibly promising student in astrophysics and was a rising star in his field,” James Bullock, dean of physical sciences at UC Irvine, tweeted on Thursday. “Jose was quite special, both because he was brilliant and because he was genuinely a sweet soul, a nice person who everyone liked.

“As his Ph.D. advisor, I can testify that we were fortunate he came to UCI to pursue his Ph.D.”

According to the preliminary investigation, the men were standing near the parked vehicle when a suspect vehicle drove up and a passenger opened fire, striking two men. The suspect shot the third man a short distance away as the car, described only as a dark sedan, sped away, Liu said.

The motive for the shooting was unclear.

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Originally published on https://www.dailynews.com