Detectives continued looking for the suspect who got out of a car and gunned down a 13-year-old Costa Mesa boy over the weekend at a Pico Rivera gas station where the victim’s mother worked.
Investigators on Sunday, Aug. 24, arrested the driver on suspicion of being an accessory to murder, sheriff’s Lt. Michael Modica said.
But the gunman, one of at least two passengers, ran after the shooting at the 76 station on the 8800 block of Whittier Boulevard around 11:45 p.m. Saturday.
The motive remains unknown.
The medical examiner’s office identified the victim as Saith Toledo Mendez.
The boy would go to work with his mom.
Surveillance video shows a car pulling up to the gas station, Modica said, with the driver getting out. The suspect also stepped out of the car.
The boy was walking when shot several times for no apparent reason, Modica said.
Saturday’s shooting happened two days after a man was fatally shot at the Shell gas station on the 9400 block of Washington Boulevard in the city, two miles from the 76 station.
The two shootings don’t appear to be related based on surveillance video, Modica said.
“They’re not the same suspect in appearance,” he said.
In the Aug. 21 shooting, detectives believe there was a confrontation or possible argument between two men, sheriff’s Lt. Daniel Vizcarra said. They don’t know what the dispute was about.
That suspect ran after the shooting, Vizcarra said. The victim, not yet publicly identified, died at a hospital.
Investigators asked anyone with information about either shooting to call them at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers 1-800-222-8477 or go to lacrimestoppers.org.