On August 17, 2023, at about 10:05 a.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a shooting in the 500 block of South Lorena Street and found 45-year-old Fermin Smokey Ruelas inside his home with multiple gunshot wounds. Ruelas was pronounced dead at the scene after officers and medical personnel arrived.

Investigators identified 26-year-old Michael Monarrez as the primary suspect in Ruelas’s homicide; Monarrez was apprehended shortly after the incident. Authorities say Monarrez and a 14-year-old accomplice were also involved in the August 12, 2023, killing of 16-year-old Alfonso Ramos at Evergreen Park Recreation Center in Boyle Heights. The LAPD and local officials have indicated these killings may be tied to gang-related activity in the Hollenbeck Division, and the District Attorney has charged Monarrez with two counts of murder while a petition was filed to charge the juvenile with murder.

What can readers from the neighborhood add about activity in the area or possible witnesses to either incident?