According to KTLA: Victims’ loved ones gathered for a vigil on Monday, hours after police announced an arrest had been made in the bowling alley shooting that claimed three lives late Friday night.
Reginald Wallace, 47, was arrested in connection to the fatal shooting, Torrance police Chief Eve Irvine said at an afternoon news conference.
The suspect was on parole after having served 17 years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon. He was released in 2017, Irvine said.
Authorities responded to a call about multiple shots fired just before midnight at Gable House Bowl on the 22000 block of Hawthorne Boulevard on Jan. 4. Three men were pronounced dead on the scene and four others were injured.
The men killed were identified by their family members as Michael Radford, 20, and Robert Meekins and Astin Edwards, both 28. They had gone bowling that night to celebrate a birthday, relatives said.
Of the four others injured in the shooting, two were taken to a hospital.
Based on interviews and video footage, officials determined that a physical struggle broke out between two people and then grew to involve several people in a group of 20 who were bowling together.
One witness, Donna Scott, said she saw the upheaval begin.
“All of a sudden we heard some young ladies cursing and there was a big fight,” she said. “It was girls first; the girls were fighting, they were rolling on the floor. The security came up, and then the next thing we know, there were men fighting.”
Police are still investigating what sparked the initial altercation, but said it escalated into a large brawl.
Wallace is accused of pulling a handgun out of his pocket and then shooting into the crowd.
“There was complete chaos at this time,” Irvine said. “People were running all over, there were fights still occurring, and when he pulled out the handgun, even more chaos started occurring.”
Police say no one else opened fire.
Wallace was arrested Sunday morning, 30 hours after the shooting, by Torrance Police Department officers and a SWAT team, police said.
On Monday night, hundreds of family members and friends returned to the shooting scene to mourn the victims.
Meekins’ mother, Anglean Hubbard, said she met the news of Wallace’s arrest with mixed feelings.
“I’m happy, but I’m angry at the same time,” she told KTLA. “A grown man — 47 years old — took my baby from me. It’s unbelievable.”
Tonette Wiggins, Edwards’ mother, said her son was with his cousin during his dying moments and had been pleading for help.
“It really hurts, because I’ve got to bury my son,” Wiggins said. “And I shouldn’t be burying my son, because he should be burying me.”
Wallace is being held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown La. Unbelievable that this idiot would just pull out a weapon and start shooting into a crowd..He was just released from prison maybe he wanted to get back to his boyfriend, because this was stupid..RIP and prayers up to all families involved.
KTLA’s Erika Martin contributed to this report #keepitjuicy
