UCI grad student and a friend killed in LA County shooting

A UCI student and another man were killed, with a third wounded, in a drive-by shooting near the border of South Los Angeles and the unincorporated Florence area Wednesday night.

Authorities were seeking two suspects.

Deputies responded to the 1100 block of East 68th Street, near Central Avenue, at about 7:05 p.m. Wednesday and found one man dead and two others suffering gunshot wounds who were taken to a hospital, where one died, said Deputy Erin Liu of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The third victim was treated and released, Liu said.

According to authorities, 24-year-old Jose Flores Velazquez died at the scene, and 24-year-old Alfredo Carrera of Los Angeles died at a hospital.

Velazquez and Carrera had grown up six houses apart on the street where they were shot. The shooting reportedly occurred in Carrera’s driveway after they had parked an SUV.

Carrera was about to become a first-time father with his girlfriend. Velazquez was a physics doctoral student at UC Irvine and had his sights set on a job at NASA. His work used data taken from the far reaches of space to explore how galaxies were formed, UCI Dean of physical sciences, and Velazquez’s Ph.D. advisor, James Bullock, said.

“He was doing cutting edge stuff, and was giving talks all over the country about his research,” Bullock said.

The slain student’s professor said Velazquez’s work would impact the field of astrophysics for years after his death. He described him as a brilliant scientist who was well liked by his colleagues.

He also kept close ties to the South Los Angeles neighborhood he grew up in. Velazquez always remembered to pick up a happy meal when he would travel back home from Orange County once each week to visit his four-year old sister, Bullock said.

“As his Ph.D. advisor, I can testify that we were fortunate he came to UCI to pursue his Ph.D.”

According to the preliminary investigation, he and Carrera were standing near a parked SUV when a suspect in a dark sedan opened fire on them. A third man was shot a short distance away as the suspect’s car sped away, Liu said.

The motive for the shooting was unclear.

Velazqez’s relatives have set up a Gofundme account to help cover the cost of funerary expenses.