MICHIGAN AVENUE — For the third time in days, a shooting has struck the Pico Neighborhood.
Not long removed from a tragic shooting rampage that left five people and the shooter dead on Friday near Santa Monica College and another that wounded a man on his bicycle on Sunday, a gunman approached two men in an alley near 16th Street and Michigan Avenue on Tuesday morning, wounding them both.
One of the men succumbed to his injuries later that afternoon at a nearby hospital, said Santa Monica Police Department spokesman Sgt. Richard Lewis.
According to a preliminary investigation, the two men were approached on foot by a Latino male suspect in his 20s or 30s. The man opened fire on them with what police believe was a handgun of unknown caliber and fled in a vehicle, Lewis said.
Police were investigating reports that the suspect arrived and left in a royal blue Infiniti with a license plate of 5HX287, according to reports.
It is too early to say if the shooting is gang-related, Lewis said.
Resident Matthew Millen told KTLA5 he heard the gun fire.
"I was at my computer, I live on the corner of 16th and Michigan, and there were about five shots," Millen said. "I ran out to the door but I didn't see any car going. Potentially the car went the other way towards Lincoln and the freeway."
Cordia Bass, a six-year resident of Santa Monica, had just returned home from the gym when the shooting occurred.
Bass dropped to the floor of his living room, unsure of where the loud shots were coming from.
"It was scary," he said. "You feel unsafe, dominated by this violence."
The shooting follows another on Sunday afternoon in which a Latino male in his 30s on a bicycle was approached on the 3000 block of Exposition Boulevard by a vehicle. Shots were fired, and the man was hit three times.
That shooting could be gang-related, Lewis said.
It came after a shooting spree on Friday in which a man killed five people following a domestic dispute. He was eventually gunned down by police at Santa Monica College.
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