Robert Arthur Calderon, 27

Robert Arthur Calderon, a 27-year-old white man, was shot and killed Friday, Dec. 18, in the 600 block of North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.

The Pasadena Police Department received multiple calls about shots being fired in the residential neighborhood about 10:45 p.m., Lt. Terysa Rojas said. When officers arrived, they found Calderon lying in the grassy strip between the street and the sidewalk.

A trail of blood started in the middle of the street, Rojas said, and extended about 15 feet to where Calderon collapsed. Calderon was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:02 p.m. with multiple gunshot wounds to his torso, according to coroner’s records. 

Investigators found seven 9-millimeter shell casings at the scene, according to coroner’s records, but no one reported seeing the shooting, so investigators don’t know whether Calderon got out of a car or was shot as he was crossing the street, Rojas said.

Calderon lived in Altadena, about three miles north of the shooting. There is a convenience store in the neighborhood, but no evidence from the security cameras that Calderon ever visited the store, Rojas said. Investigators haven’t been able to find any friends or family who lived in the area.

“It’s a pretty quiet, dark-lit street at night,” Rojas said. “We know gang members sometimes congregate two or three blocks down the street, but we don’t know why he was on that particular street and we’re puzzled about why the shooting occurred there.” 

Investigators have learned that Calderon associated with some Pasadena-area gang members, Rojas said, “but we can’t prove he was a validated gang member. I don’t even feel comfortable saying this was a gang-related shooting. We just don’t know.” 

Another shooting was reported the following night on Dec. 19, during a memorial service for Calderon at 98 W. Claremont St., outside the Kings Villages apartments, where Calderon used to visit with friends, Rojas said. 

Shots were fired into the large group attending the service, and it appears gunfire was returned from the group, because investigators found two different bullet casings at the scene, Rojas said. One woman in her 20s was struck by bullets in the stomach. She was taken to the hospital, Rojas said, and is expected to survive. 

Investigators have little information about that shooting, Rojas said. 

“There were quite a few people at the memorial, but pretty much everyone scattered when the shooting started so we didn’t have many witnesses to talk to,” Rojas said. “We believe the woman was an innocent victim, caught in the middle of people shooting at each other, but she has not been very cooperative with us, and unless she tells us, we don’t know.” 

Calderon’s death was the third homicide in Pasadena during 2015 according to coroner’s records. Eight homicides were reported in Pasadena in 2014 and three in 2013. 

Anyone with information about Calderon’s shooting is asked to call Pasadena Police Det. Tim Bundy at (626) 744-3953. Those wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.  

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @latimeshomicide on Twitter.