Man serving 90-years-to-life sentence in 2009 gas station shooting

A Long Beach man is serving a 90-years-to-life prison sentence in the fatal shooting that killed Okpara Khamisi Wright on April 2, 2009.

Wright, 35, was at a gas station with another man in the 5400 block of Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach when a group of men approached them, got into an argument and opened fire, the Long Beach Police Department reported. 

Enrique Sanchez, then 22, was arrested in August 2009 and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the shooting, according to Greg Risling, a spokesman for Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. 

Another Long Beach man, Rogelio Zavala, 29, was also arrested and charged in the case, but the charges against him were later dismissed, Risling said. 

Sanchez was convicted of murder and attempted murder in December 2010 and sentenced to 90 years to life in prison in January 2011, Risling said. 

Wright’s son, Okpara Wright, 19, was shot and killed April 23, 2016, at the corner of  Mary Avenue and East 87th Place in the unincorporated Florence-Firestone area of South Los Angeles. 

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies found Wright found lying in the street, two blocks from his grandparents’ home, after neighbors reported hearing gunfire about 9:28 p.m. Investigators have not been able to get any suspect information, said Lt. Dave Coleman. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @latimeshomicide on Twitter.