Christian Jimenez was 21 when he was shot and killed on the morning of May 20, 2023, outside an apartment complex on the 800 block of Garner Avenue in Salinas. He and a 20-year-old friend had been working on Jimenez’s new car when two men approached and opened fire; Jimenez suffered multiple gunshot wounds and later died at a local trauma center. His friend was also struck and survived.

A stray round from the same barrage struck a nearby resident, a mother who was cooking breakfast in her apartment, leaving her paralyzed. Investigators identified two suspects days after the shooting: Abel Juan Perez and Ivan Jovani Barriga. Police say the pair drove past the Garner Avenue apartment several times that morning before parking nearby and ambushing the victims, and charged both men with murder, attempted murder, and related offenses tied to gang activity.

A Monterey County jury returned guilty verdicts in January 2025, including special-circumstance findings for lying in wait and murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang.