TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

A series of shootings and robberies police say were carried out by two documented gang members targeting people at random terrorized east Bakersfield early Wednesday, leaving two dead and others aghast at the violence.

“It was just scary,” said Olga Alva. “I was worried about my family.”

Alva said her mother left her house on McNew Court at about 6 a.m. and was prevented by police from driving back onto the street when she returned. Officers escorted Alva’s 21-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother from her mother’s house as SWAT and police searched for suspects.

Arrested Wednesday morning on suspicion of the robberies and shootings were Eric Castilleja, 23, and Luis Gonzalez, 18, Bakersfield police Detective Uriel Pacheco said. Both suspects are documented gang members.

Information from victims and witnesses led police to the 1100 block of McNew Court at 3:27 a.m., where a vehicle identified as being used in the robberies was found. Several people were detained at a residence, and Castilleja and Gonzalez were taken into custody, Pacheco said.

The incidents that happened, according to Pacheco, are:

• At 1:06 a.m., police were dispatched to Baker and Lake streets for a victim of a shooting and crash. Officers learned a man was in his vehicle and was confronted by suspects with a gun who demanded property. The man was shot in the right arm, and as he tried to drive away, he crashed into a light pole in the 1000 block of Baker Street.

• At 1:14 a.m., while investigating that incident, officers found a victim of a fatal gunshot wound to the upper body in the 1000 block of Inyo Street near Lake Street. That person was identified by the coroner’s office as Raul Alonso Morales, 36, of Bakersfield.

• At 2:28 a.m., officers went to the 3300 block of Union Avenue for a report of a victim of an armed robbery. Someone had brandished a gun and demanded money from a female taxi driver in her 40s.

• At 2:35 a.m., police received a report of an armed robbery in the 1900 block of Baker Street. There someone brandished a gun and demanded property from a pedestrian, a man in his 20s. The victim gave the suspect some items.

• At 2:45 a.m., police received a report of a victim shot in the 1400 block of Williams Street. A man in his 30s, who was shot multiple times in the upper torso, died at the scene.

Police continued to investigate Wednesday, while neighbors expressed concern and fear.

Sometime after midnight Thomas Fitzpatrick, 39, heard a "pop" from his second-floor apartment just south of the Baker and Lake streets shooting. He said he went to his window, worried that someone might be bleeding to death in his parking lot.

When he got to his window he heard two more shots. At about that time he saw a dark SUV turning near the corner of Baker and Lake streets, and it hit a light pole.

Another SUV came right behind it, Fitzpatrick said. Two more "pops" rang out and the second vehicle kept going.

"It was pretty hair-raising, you know what I mean?" Fitzpatrick said.

He said a man staggered out of the first vehicle and crossed the street, trying to run around the corner.

A driver in a white service truck drove up, pulled out his cell phone and called for help, Fitzpatrick said. The person who had staggered out of the vehicle returned, apparently noticing how badly he had been hurt.

"I got to thinking, my roommate or I, either one could have been standing out here or standing out there on that corner and got hit by a stray or something like that, you know what I mean?” Fitzpatrick said. “I'm already contemplating on finding another area where I can go."

Some othe men in the area commented on the state of the neighborhood.

“9-1-1’s on my speed dial,” said Bill Derington, 56, explaining he hears noise day and night, including shots fired, glass breaking and people arguing.

A friend of his, Danny Ortiz, 59, said, “We don’t even come out at night because it’s not safe at all.”

Baldemar Herrera, who lives in the area of McNew Court, where the two suspects were found, sat on his bike and watched the activity Wednesday morning. A SWAT van as well as numerous police cruisers and officers were inside a cordoned-off area.

Herrera said all he’d heard was that there’d been a string of robberies in the area.

“It’s kind of crazy because you got kids around here,” he said.

Anyone with information about any of the crimes is asked to call the Bakersfield Police Department at 327-7111 or Detective Scott Hughes at 326-3501.