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Local Man Wrongly Convicted Finds Justice at Last
Compton
Teen Charged in Slaying of Man in Wheelchair, Friend
Police still
searching for at least one accomplice
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – A
19-year-old Compton man involved in the April 20 shooting deaths of
two unarmed men, one in a wheelchair, was charged last week with two
counts of murder.
Authorities are still searching for his accomplice, according to authorities.
Andrew Lemus, an alleged gang member who surrendered himself to police
a day after the Sunday, April 20 slayings, was Wednesday, April 23
charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Rigoberto Vega,
23, and David Gallegos, 32.
The charges include the special circumstance allegation of multiple
murders. Prosecutors said they had not yet decided whether to seek
the death penalty. The criminal complaint alleges someone other than
Lemus fired the trigger.
Lemus turned himself in as police were executing search warrants on
127th Street in connection with the murders, authorities said.
Vega was pushing Gallegos, who is disabled, in his wheelchair on that
fateful Sunday afternoon in the 600 block of North Alameda Street near
the VFW Post when a silver Ford Mustang pulled over and at least one
occupant got out and began firing at the unarmed men, said L.A. County
Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Rosenberg.
Witnesses said they saw the vehicle speeding away. It was later found
abandoned about two blocks from the scene.
Rosenberg described the incident as an example of how gangs are becoming
more brazen and brutal in their attacks.
Rosenberg said there was no evidence so far to lead authorities to
believe that the victims were involved in gangs, and their surviving
family members insist they were not.
According to the families, the two were boyhood friends who regarded
each other as cousins. They had just attended church at Our Lady of
Victory on Palmer Street. They were walking to the IHOP restaurant
on the corner of Alameda and Compton Boulevard to have lunch when their
lives were snuffed short.
The murders of Vega and Gallegos were the third and fourth in as many
days in the Hub City. Just three days prior, on Thursday, April 17,
two were killed in separate shootings. They represented the 16th and
17th murders within city limits so far in 2008.
As of that time last year, the city had only seen 11 slayings.
Gallegos had been wheelchair-bound for the past six years after what
the family described as an accidental shooting. The family is reportedly
trying to raise money to send the bodies back to Michoacan, Mexico,
where the two met as boys.
Gallegos is survived by a 9-year-old son of the same name who lives
in Chicago.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Sheriff’s Department’s
Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.
Mayor Eric J. Perrodin expressed displeasure at last week’s council
meeting over various news reports stating that the slaying had taken
place outside of a local church, which he likened to sensationalism.
That church, Faith Inspirational, is located on Palmer Street about
a block east of where the murders actually took place.
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