Two young men were charged today with murder and other counts in connection with a drive-by shooting last month in Long Beach that left a 69-year-old great-grandfather dead.
Rhyan Burrell, 20, of Lynwood, and Terrel Warren, 23, of Long Beach, are scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 19 in a Long Beach courtroom in connection with the Oct. 9 killing of Jose Corrales, who was slain as he watered his lawn in the 1900 block of Canal Avenue, near Pacific Coast Highway.
The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait, murder to further the activities of a criminal street gang and murder by discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against the two.
Burrell and Warren are also facing one count each of shooting at an occupied motor vehicle and unlawful firearm activity and six counts each of attempted murder.
The two are also facing gang allegations, and Warren is facing allegations that he personally and intentionally discharged a handgun. Corrales -- who was shot at least once in the upper body -- was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
"Based on the preliminary investigation, detectives learned the victim was outside a residence with a group of male subjects when (someone in) a light-colored sedan containing three to four subjects opened fire," according to a police statement.
Detectives subsequently learned another man in a nearby vehicle was also struck by gunfire and took himself to a hospital.
Burrell and Warren were arrested last Friday by Long Beach police.
"Detectives have determined this murder is gang-motivated and believe the murder may be correlated to an altercation which occurred earlier that afternoon at Cabrillo High School," according to a police statement.
Three firearms and ammunition were recovered during the warrant search and were submitted to the Long Beach Police Department's crime lab for forensic analysis. A vehicle believed to have been involved in the case was impounded, police said.
According to news reports, Corrales was a family patriarch with 17 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Rebecca Rodriguez, one of Corrales' five daughters, told NBC4 her father had been with several of his grandchildren who were visiting him and that the kids ran when they heard the gunfire.
"When they turned around, he was on the ground," Rodriguez said, adding that her father was a devoted husband who would drive his wife Maria to daily kidney dialysis treatments.
