2 Known Gang Members Charged With Murder In Bizarre Weekend Crime Spree

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Authorities say a man and woman have been charged with murder in a weekend shooting spree in the Whittier and La Mirada areas.

Alejandro Lazo, 21, and Reyna Gomez, 27, were arrested Saturday night in connection with a separate shooting at a Whittier-area hotel, but at the time of the arrest, authorities were still uncertain whether they were involved in the earlier shootings.

Officials said Lazo and Gomez are known gang members and both are also recent parolees from state prison.

Each was charged Thursday with with one count of murder and 14 counts of attempted murder.

Authorities said this was one of the most bizarre cases in recent memories. The suspects, it appears, went on a joyride just to shoot people -- complete strangers. In a three-hour period, police said they had to investigate seven different crime scenes.

A carjacking kicked off the crime spree about 2:15 p.m. Saturday in Pico Rivera, and by 4 p.m. reports began coming in about a man and a woman in the stolen vehicle shooting at people in the area.

Jose Sahagun, a Norwalk father of two,  was shot and killed in La Mirada, and at least two others were hurt in additional shootings reported in the area, according to police.

Sahagun was in a car with his family -- stopped at a red light -- when he was shot and killed, police said.

A carjacked vehicle was found abandoned at 6:30 p.m. at Amelia Mayberry Park, at Painter Avenue and Lakeland Road in unincorporated South Whittier.

Police in Whittier responded around 8:30 p.m. to a reported shooting at a nearby hotel, where they arrested Lazo and Gomez in an allegedly stolen vehicle, authorities said.

Lazo and Gomz apparently wnt to the hotel with the intention of checking in. Instead, they got into some kind of altercation with people in  the hotel's parking lot. According to CBS2's Dave Lopez, at this point the suspects also got shot.

Their injuries are not considered life-threatening.

At the time, authorities said Lazo and Gomez matched the description of the suspects in the earlier shootings, but they did not immediately link the couple to the crime spree.

After being treated for their wounds, the couple was arrested. They are in the jail ward of LA County-USC Medical Center.

They remain on $16 million bail.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)