Three men killed in separate shootings in Los Angeles

Three men were killed in separate shootings in Los Angeles in less than a 24-hour period.

The first took place shortly after 7:30 p.m. Friday in the 8900 block of Orion Avenue in North Hills, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release.

Officers responded to find a man with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. Authorities identified him as Ryan Castellanos, 18.

Investigators received preliminary information that a compact sedan was seen fleeing the area, police said.

Anyone with information was asked to call the LAPD’s Valley Bureau Homicide detectives at (818) 374-9550.

The second shooting took place in the 1300 block of 97th Street near Normandie Avenue in unincorporated L.A. County near South Los Angeles, according to investigators.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies responded shortly after 12:30 a.m. and found a wounded man lying on the sidewalk. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office identified him as Glenn Burton, 34, of Los Angeles.

The third shooting occurred Saturday on the 200 block of North Bowen Avenue in Compton, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

The wounded man was taken by paramedics to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:25 p.m., authorities said.

Homicide detectives were conducting an investigation at the crime scene. No suspect information was available.

Anyone with information for both of these cases are asked to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).

L.A.’s homicide count has been on the rise over the past 18 months, increasing far faster than it did for a decade prior.

Other cities across the country have experienced similar trends, and police officials and criminologists nationwide are trying to figure out why — considering factors as disparate as the economic toll of COVID-19, the closing of social services during lockdowns, and the scope and intensity of recent anti-police protests.

The surge in homicides in Los Angeles since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has played out almost entirely among Latino and Black victims, according to a Times analysis of Los Angeles Police Department data.

The figures reflect wide disparities in public safety across the city, experts say, as well as compounding trauma for communities of color hit hard by past gang violence and the economic and social upheaval of the health crisis.

Times staff writer Kevin Rector and Priscella Vega contributed to this report