Benjamin Ryan Castaneda, 27, was killed in a late-night car-to-car shooting near his home in the unincorporated West Whittier–Los Nietos neighborhood. He stepped out just before midnight on June 2, 2025, and drove his silver Acura away from his apartment complex. Around 11:20–11:30 p.m. on the 8100 block of Broadway Avenue, a champagne-, gold- or brown-colored four-door sedan pulled alongside his driver’s side and fired into his vehicle. Castaneda was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead in the early hours that followed; the county coroner ruled the manner of death homicide by gunshot wound to the torso and fixed the scene near Broadway Avenue and Norwalk Boulevard as the last place he was seen alive.

Detectives describe the encounter as a brief ambush that became a car-to-car shooting; surveillance footage captured the suspect sedan fleeing the scene. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, and the sheriff’s department made a public appeal on behalf of the family. No arrest or suspect identification has been announced, and investigators have not released a definitive motive.

If anyone saw a champagne, gold or brown four-door sedan near Broadway Avenue and Norwalk Boulevard that night, or knows anything about this ambush, please come forward with tips for investigators.