Two dead in separate shooting incidents in San Bernardino (Both on Sierra Way)

Two dead in separate shooting incidents in San Bernardino
Melissa Pinion-Whitt, Staff Writer
Created: 07/30/2009 03:00:09 PM PDT


SAN BERNARDINO - Two people were shot dead in a night of violence that had police detectives dashing between two crime scenes along Sierra Way.
No one had been arrested in either killing Thursday afternoon.

A 26-year-old San Bernardino woman died in the middle of the street in the 1300 block of North Sierra Way after a man shot her at 11:56 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

"There are some indications that the victim and the suspect knew each other," said San Bernardino police Lt. Dan Keil.

Neighbors across the street who said they witnessed the slaying scattered when the man turned and fired one shot at their house.

The bullet lodged in a wall just outside a bedroom where a 2-year-old boy was asleep.

"Thank God nobody else was hurt," said Lorena Martel, 23, who was with her family on their front porch when the shooting occurred.

Martel said she saw the woman walk south on Sierra Way toward Base Line about 20 minutes earlier. She thought the woman was heading to a store. When the woman returned, a man was walking with her.

"She was trying to get away from this guy she was with. She said, 'Help! Help!' That's when he shot her and then he shot at the house," Martel said.

Her relatives ran inside and then Martel ran to the victim's side to help her.

"I just started praying for her. She took three deep breaths and then passed away," she said.

Detectives were investigating that crime scene when police dispatchers received another shooting call exactly one hour later.
Fifteen blocks away at the corner of Sierra Way and Rialto Avenue at the Meadowbrook Apartments, police found a man who had collapsed in the courtyard of the complex.

He suffered gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

"It may be related to a dispute between subjects earlier in the evening, which our victim may have been involved in," Keil said.

Officers were unsure what sparked the earlier fight.

Police on Thursday afternoon were interviewing a man they considered a person of interest in the Meadowbrook shooting.