Dennis RomeroCops today were looking for a gang member wanted for killing a man outside a Panorama City marijuana dispensary last month.
Detectives say the genius who pulled the trigger got the wrong guy: The passenger in a car outside the pot shop was the target, but the driver, 25-year-old Alex Moran, was fatally shot.
They're not saying who pulled the trigger. Two suspects are alleged to have carried out the crime on March 17.
At least three people in the case, two suspects and the intended target, were inside the pot shop before violence broke out in the parking lot, cops said.
Police won't disclose the location of the cannabis retailer, either.
They arrested 22-year-old Raul Benitez but say in statement today that 23-year-old gangster Santiago Gutierrez is at-large and “is wanted as a co-principle in the shooting.”
He's 5 feet, 11 inches, 250 pounds and goes by the street name Ya Ya.
Credit: Gutierrez via the LAPD
Here's what the LAPD says went down:
Detectives believe Gutierrez and Benitez confronted a rival gang member in the marijuana clinic. That man was a passenger in the car Moran was driving. When Gutierrez and Benitez left the clinic, one approached Moran, who was sitting behind the steering wheel, and shot him several times.
LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon called it “a cold-blooded gang shooting, nothing less.”
In looking for the duo cops say the found fighting roosters at a location connected to Benitez.
If you have info on where Gutierrez might be, investigators would love to hear from you: 818-838-9976.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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