Scottie Tripp, a 28-year-old Black man, was shot dead outside his Bakersfield apartment complex in the early morning of January 16, 2021. Around 5:15 a.m. he and his brother were warming up their car on the 800 block of Taylor Street; Scottie ran back inside because he had forgotten something. Two men, later identified as Jorge Flores and Carlos Trejo, waited concealed by a block wall. When Scottie returned, Trejo asked where he was from and then fired seven rounds, killing him instantly. As the two suspects fled, they also fired additional shots, striking the brother’s vehicle as he pursued them.

Investigators connected Scottie’s murder to a broader, gang-related spree that included two earlier shootings the previous evening: one victim survived being shot at while riding a bicycle, and another, 27-year-old Vladimir Sanchez, was killed when shots were fired into a car. Flores and Trejo were arrested in April 2021 and later tried. In January 2026 a Kern County jury convicted both defendants of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances of lying in wait and acting in furtherance of a criminal street gang, plus three counts of attempted murder. Sentencing followed in March 2026.

Did anyone in Bakersfield know Scottie or have information about his movements that morning?