Jose Villa, 36

Died Aug. 9, 2008 at 5:17 p.m.

Jose Villa, 36, and Candido Salazar, 43, both Latino, were shot and killed about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, in the 8000 block of Rose Street in Paramount.

Deputy Ed Hernandez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, said Villa and Salazar were neighbors having a barbecue in the parking lot of an apartment complex when two young Latino men approached and shot them. Villa and Salazar were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, Hernandez said. The two gunmen then fled on foot. Witnesses told deputies that they saw the two men getting into a white sport utility vehicle. A 2-year-old boy also was hurt in the gunfire. The toddler was treated at a local hospital and was expected to live, Hernandez said.

The next day, two crosses wrapped in tinfoil and vigil candles were placed alongside the wall of the driveway, a few feet from where the two men were shot. Flies gathered around slices of watermelon and mango left on a plastic plate. Half-empty beer bottles also remained from the day before. A small silver banner hung on a car tent. The banner read "Happy Birthday." A neighbor returned to the complex, ran upstairs and ran back down. He did not want to comment on the shooting.

There was no additional description of the two gunmen. The motive for the shooting has not been determined. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's homicide bureau at (323) 890-5500.

—Ruben Vives / Los Angeles Times