Youths on Bicycle Kill 2, Wound 1 : Violence: El Monte shootings occur 50 minutes apart. Authorities are looking for the pair, who stole one victim’s car.

Two people were shot to death and another was seriously wounded in El Monte by at least one of two youths riding a 10-speed bicycle, authorities said Wednesday.

The violence began when Rafael Michael Torres, 28, was shot at 8:20 p.m. Tuesday in front of 11533 Medina Court after he yelled out his gang name to two youths approaching on a bicycle, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators said.

A youth sitting on the bicycle’s handlebars jumped off, pulled out a revolver and shot Torres several times in the head and upper torso. He then remounted and the two rode away, investigators said.

Fifty minutes later, the two bike-riding gang members coasted into the parking lot of the Five Points Shopping Center at 11850 E. Valley Blvd., authorities said.

Near Crawford’s Market, they confronted Alberto Perez, 21, of Alhambra and a 17-year-old youth, who were waiting outside their car for a friend, investigators said.

The gunman forced the 17-year-old to kneel, then shot him in the head, execution style. The 17-year-old, whose name was not released by authorities, died about 45 minutes later. Perez was shot three times in the back and once in the chest as he fled on foot. He was listed in serious condition in a hospital Wednesday.

The two assailants left their bicycle and took Perez’s Toyota Corolla, investigators said.

Perez, born in Pachuca, Mexico, is a painter who has been in the United States for three years, said his brother, Angel, 25, as he waited outside the hospital’s intensive-care ward.

“My brother just goes to work and comes home,” Perez said. “He doesn’t go out nights, except for soccer.”

Angel Perez said his brother’s team, Pachuca, placed second last year in the California League, a sports organization that plays in Alhambra and East Los Angeles. But the season was over for that league and his brother, who played at least three times a week, wanted to continue playing.

So, with a friend, he went to a soccer equipment store in the shopping center to register for another league. The two were leaving the store when they were accosted by the two bicyclists, Angel Perez said.

The older brother said Alberto does not want his parents, who live in Mexico, to know about the shooting because they will worry.

By contrast, Torres family members said they were not surprised by Rafael Torres’ death.

“He was the only cholo in the family,” said his sister, Vicky Torres, 25.

Known as Joker, Torres had dropped out of school in the ninth grade and had been in jail numerous times, she said. But he planned to leave behind his troubled past and the notorious, gang-plagued Hayes area in El Monte to begin a job soon in San Pedro as a painter, she said.

“We talked about it Sunday night,” Vicky Torres said. “But he told me, ‘I didn’t realize how hard it is to get out. If I get out, they’ll kill me.’ ”

The Sheriff’s Department is seeking public assistance in finding the two assailants who abandoned their bicycle for the gray 1988 Toyota Corolla, California license plate number 2WWG 751.