-
Mar 2, 2008 6:44 pm US/Central
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Fatal Drive-By Shooting At Richfield Arby's
RICHFIELD, Minn. (WCCO) ―
A young man was shot to death on the Interstate 494 Frontage Road near Portland Avenue in Richfield. Gustavo Ortega, 18, had been walking with five friends shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday night when he was shot twice in the chest.
According to witnesses a man fired six shots from a red vehicle, hitting Gustavo Ortega twice. He died at the scene. A few stray bullets hit the Arby's restaurant, one of them went into the building.
Speaking in Spanish, the victim's father Sabastian Ortega said he wants to know why someone would do this to his son. He said the 18-year-old worked a lot as a roofer. He added that his son was very calm, but recently started going out with friends.
Investigators aren't sure yet whether Gustavo Ortega was targeted in the shooting. They are looking into the possibility the shooting was gang related. It's been a long time since there has been a drive-by shooting in Richfield.
"Especially at that time at night on a Saturday night, you have several restaurants in that location, very busy, a lot of traffic. It's very unusual. We don't see those type of incidents in our city," said Lt. Jay Henthorne of Richfield Police.
Police are also checking into any connection to a deadly shooting in Minneapolis a few hours earlier. At Lake Street and Portland Avenue another male victim was shot and killed on the street. A bullet hit the window of a nearby Midas store. Again, police have no motive and no suspects in custody.
"You have something violent like this happen in the evening in a high traffic area. Is there going to be something that's going to be retaliatory down the road? That's what we need to take a look at," said Henthorne.
Richfield police believe the suspect's were in a red two-door vehicle and were headed westbound on 77th Street at 5th Avenue at the time of the shooting. Investigators believe there were two men wearing dark clothing inside of that vehicle.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)