Salvador Arredondo, 19

Salvador Arredondo, 19, a Latino young man, was shot in a double homicide that also took the life of Fabian Cooper, 21. Arredondo died at 6:12 a.m. Sunday, April 8.

Deputies said the two friends were shot while leaving a party in the 2100 block of W. 108th Street at Van Ness in Westmont at about 3 a.m.

They were getting into a car together when two black men attacked them, shooting both in the torso, then fleeing. Cooper died at the scene; Arredondo died three hours later at a hospital.

They were lifelong friends, randomly targeted, investigators said. Arredondo was a student at Marymount College. When Sheriff's Det. Mark Lillienfeld went to search his car, he found college catalogues, textbooks and notebooks from Arredondo's classes at Marymount.

Lillienfeld looked over the notebooks and recalled thinking: "Seems like he was excited about being in college. Everything was very neat, clean and organized, and he had taken a lot of notes."

The party hosts charged admission, and scores of people were there. The killers may have had some gang rivalry with some of those in attendance, and chosen to attack noncombatants Arredondo and Cooper simply because they happened to be outside.

Nearly all the party goers fled before investigators arrived, and few have offered help finding the killers. Investigators hope more will contact police and tell them what, if anything, they saw or heard. (323) 890-5500.