Man Kidnapped and Shot in Long Beach Dies Monday

Correction: Long Beach police tonight corrected the victim's first name, stating it was Hector not Jose.

A 24-year-old man died Monday of wounds he suffered after he was kidnapped in Riverside County, driven to Long Beach, choked unconscious and thrown into a trunk--to the horror of witnesses--and later shot and dumped in an alley.

Good Samaritans who saw the man, 24, attacked in the 1200 block of 10th Street at just before midnight Friday called 9-1-1 quickly enough that Long Beach Police Department officers were able to stop a suspect vehicle just blocks away, police said.

Three men were arrested and are expected to be charged in court Tuesday with the murder and kidnapping. 

Department spokeswoman Nancy Pratt said that after patrol officers found blood in the trunk of the vehicle but no man Friday night, they went back to where the Good Samaritans first reported the attack. There, Pratt said, officers found a bloody hammer and a gun.

As a search fanned out for the victim from the stopped suspect vehicle, yet another witness reporting a shot sounding as if it came from the 1000 block of St. Louis, where the caller went outside to check out what was happening, the caller found a man wounded in the upper body who was laying in the alley.

Hector Jauregui-Campos, 24, of Orange was gravely injured, but succumbed to his injuries Monday late in the day. It was not yet clear the nature of the dispute that led to his death, Pratt said.

Detectives are expected to present their investigation to the L.A. District Attorney's Office Tuesday.

"Officers were able to connect the two subjects detained in the traffic stop to the victim found in the alley, and they were placed under arrest, Pratt wrote in an e-mailed press statement. "Further investigation led police to a third suspect who was located in an apartment complex near the original assault location on 10th Street, and he was also arrested for his involvement."

The first news of the shooting on Saturday revealed the address was 1036 St. Louis Avenue. As detectives pieced together the chronology of events, Pratt said, they learned that Campos met with the suspects earlier in the evening, and after a dispute, he was assaulted and then thrown into a vehicle and driven clear to Long Beach.

"At this time, it is unknown what started the initial dispute or the motive for the assault," Pratt wrote in her press statement. 

Those arrested in connection to Campos' slaying are: 19-year-old Jose Duenas of Long Beach, 20-year-old Christopher Ramirez of Mira Loma, and 21-year-old Antonio Portales of Long Beach.  All three were booked for kidnapping and attempted murder and were held at the Long Beach City Jail on $500,000 bail. After Campus died, the suspects were rebooked on murder charges and their bail revoked.

Anyone having information regarding this incident should Long Beach Police Homicide Detectives Mark McGuire and Greg Krabbe at (562) 570-7244.  Anonymous tips may be submitted via text or web by visiting www.tipsoft.com.