Great-Grandpa Gunned Down In Drive-By Shooting

LONG BEACH, CA – A 69-year-old great-grandfather gunned down in a drive-by shooting as he watered his lawn in Long Beach was identified by police Wednesday as Jose Corrales.

Corrales was fatally wounded about 3:05 p.m. Tuesday in the 1900 block of Canal Avenue, near Pacific Coast Highway, according to the Long Beach Police Department.

Officers were sent to the location to investigate a shots fired call and found Corrales with at least one gunshot wound to his upper body. Fire department personnel pronounced him dead at the scene, police said.

"Based on the preliminary investigation, detectives learned the victim was outside a residence with a group of male subjects when (someone in) a light-colored sedan containing three to four subjects opened fire," according to a police statement.

Detectives subsequently learned another man in a nearby vehicle was also struck by gunfire and took himself to a hospital.

"The incident is being investigated as gang-related," police said.

According to a news report, Corrales was a family patriarch with 17 grandchildren and one great-grandchild and was watering his lawn when he was shot.

"Everyone around here knows my dad," Rebecca Rodriguez, one of his five daughters, told NBC4. ``I had the best dad anyone can ask for."

Rodriguez told NBC4 Corrales had been with several of his grandchildren who were visiting him and that the kids ran when they heard the gunfire.

``When they turned around, he was on the ground," Rodriguez said, adding that her father was a devoted husband who would drive his wife Maria to daily kidney dialysis treatments.

Anyone with information about the shooting was urged to call LBPD Homicide Detectives Michael Hubbard and Adrian Garcia at (562) 570-7244.

Anonymous tips can be submitted through Crime Stoppers by calling (800) 222-TIPS or at lacrimestoppers.org.

City News Service; Image via Shutterstock