Two men are dead and another seriously injured after a shooting in Riverside.
It happened early Wednesday inside a building on Pierce Street.
The owner of the building says it may be tied to an illegal gambling operation.
Deepak Aggarwal came to work only to find bullets on the ground and gunshot holes in the walls at his budget auto wholesale business.
“We were lucky that we were not here and it happened at night,” he said.
The bullets came through the walls from the building next door.
Riverside police say at around 2:15 a.m., a shooting erupted inside and spilled out into the parking lot at the corner of Pierce Street and Rose Avenue.
Police found two men suffering from gunshot wounds. One died and the second one was taken to a hospital.
Riverside Officer Ryan Railsback says another victim was transported by a blood-smeared car which other officers came across on the 14th Street 91 Freeway overpass.
They were flagged down by occupants of a vehicle.
Inside was an adult male suffering from gunshot wounds and wasn’t breathing.
Officers gave the man CPR but he didn’t survive.
“We are trying to figure out what led to the shooting but right now we don’t have a motive,” Railsback said.
As investigators collect surveillance video and other evidence, they said that about a year ago the building was part of an earlier investigation.
“It might have been some gambling machines or something like that,” Railsback said.
Don Nguyen, who owns the building, said he tried unsuccessfully to evict all of the tenants when he discovered the gambling machines, which he believes were later removed.
Alexcia Alcala, who lives across the street, is glad none of the bullets struck her home.
“If you are shooting out here, you are being selfish because you are not thinking about other people and their children,” Alcala said.
Aggarwal is also glad he and his business partner were not at work when the barrage of bullets came through their wall.
“It’s crazy. It shouldn’t happen stuff like that.”
