Public's Help Sought To Identify Killers In 2009 Long Beach Shooting
LONG BEACH (CBS) — Police want the public's help to identify two possible gang members in connection with a 2009 shooting that killed one man and injured two others.
The shooting happened on Nov. 19, 2009 when 19-year-old Frank Castro Jr., of Long Beach was walking with two friends in the 3600 block of Santa Fe Avenue as two other men approached. Castro was shot several times in the chest and declared dead at the scene.
Castro's friends, ages 18 and 40, also received non-life threatening injuries. Their names were not released.
Witnesses told police that the shooting suspects were part of a group of about five men loitering near two cars parked on the south side of Arlington Street, east of Santa Fe. The two suspects had walked away from the group and confronted Castro and his friends as they were walking, and words were exchanged, according to a police account.
After the shooting, the suspects, believed to be members of a Long Beach gang, rejoined the group and they all fled in two cars – one, a purple 4-door compact and the other a small, brown 4-door compact.
The shooters are both described as black men between 18 and 22 years old, between 5-foot-10 and 6-foot-2, weighing between 160 and 180 pounds. One of the suspects wore his hair in long braids and the other wore a black beanie at the time of the shooting.
The three men seen hanging out with the shooters are also wanted by police. They are described as black men in their early 20s, with an average height and medium build.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing and is believed to be gang-related.
Anyone with information about the identities of these men, or about the shooting, can call Long Beach police homicide detectives Malcolm Evans and Todd Johnson at (562) 570-7244.
