SOLEDAD - Soledad Police said a 58-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman from King City are dead after they were shot while sitting in a parked car outside of Foods Co. on Wednesday night.
Maria Del Refugio Monroy and Silverio Perez Selendon's 19-year-old son, whose name is being witheld, is clinging to life as of Thursday.
They were all shot after going grocery shopping in Soledad while on their way home to King City from Salinas, police said.
Investigators said those parents may have been collateral damage, while their son was possibly the target because of his gang ties in King City.
"There were people out here walking in the parking lot, just as they are now, that were in the line of fire," Commander Damon Wasson of Soledad Police said Thursday morning. "They were behind where the shooter was shooting."
Commander Wasson calls last night's shooting a "war zone."
In the 25 years he's been an officer, he said what he saw is rare.
That's because whoever shot into the car, killing the mother and father, had no regard for all the people who were around getting groceries.
"When this shooting happened, all these people were in the line of fire that whoever did this shooting really didn't care there were innocent people around, and they went ahead with the shooting anyway," he said.
He said the 19-year-old man may have been the target and his parents were probably just caught in the middle of it all.
Central Coast News learned from King City Police this wasn't the first time the 19-year-old has been involved in a shooting.
Back in 2010, police said he dodged a bullet standing in an alley outside of his house, while two juveniles he was with were hit.
King City Police also said he was involved in some fights back in 2009.
And while he may have been the target again in Wednesday night's shooting, it was his 55-year-old mother and 58-year-old father who paid the ultimate price.
"That's why this is so odd, this type of shooting to happen in public with so many people around that could have been injured or hurt," Commander Wasson said.
Central Coast News spoke with a girl at the scene of the deadly shooting who said she was the 19-year-old's sister and witnessed it all; as of Thursday evening, police haven't confirmed this.
Soledad Police did say a 14-year-old girl was in the car during the shooting, and possibly others.
If you have information that can help the case, police are asking the public to call the WeTIP hotline at: 1-(800) 782-7463.
