Two more men have been arrested in the 2021 killing of a 64-year-old homeless man in Long Beach, Calif., police reported on July 2. Authorities now have four suspects.

Police discovered the victim at a homeless encampment adjacent to Highway 91 in Long Beach at about 8:10 p.m. on Jan. 10, 2021. The man was unresponsive, so officers started performing lifesaving measures, according to police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A preliminary investigation revealed the victim lived at the encampment and was shot multiple times in the upper torso, police reported.

Witnesses at the scene described two or more male suspects who fled the scene, running toward Cherry Avenue.

The motive has not been disclosed by police, but the shooting was being investigated as gang-related.

Jairo Enrique Rodriguez, 25, of Los Angeles and David Toby Oropeza, 50, of Bell were arrested Wednesday. They were each booked on one count of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Their bail was set at $2 million each.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed charges.

Police made the first arrest in the case on Oct. 23, 2024. Andrew Reyna, 47, of Lakewood, was held on suspicion of murder by special investigations division detectives who located him at a motel in Lynwood, according to police.

Reyna was booked on suspicion of murder, and his bail was set at $2 million.

On April 3, detectives arrested Jesse Galvan, 45, of Lakewood, on suspicion of being involved in the murder, police reported.

Galvan was arrested at his home and booked for murder. His bail was set at $2 million.

Long Beach, which is about 25 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, recorded 38 murders in 2024. Five of those were of homeless people, according to police data cited by Beachcomber News.

In May, a 15-year-old Long Beach boy was arrested in the November killing of Frank Suggs, 51, who was homeless. The boy’s motive was unclear.

A homeless woman at a bus stop in Long Beach, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Murders among the Los Angeles-area homeless community make up a large chunk of the city’s homicides, according to the City Controller Ken Mejia.

Of the 900 deaths of homeless people in Los Angeles in 2023, 40 were killed, which was 12 percent of all homicides in the city that year.

Homeless people make up less than 1 percent of the city’s population.

At least 73 percent of the homeless deaths that year were in streets or areas without proper utilities, such as tents, parking lots, parks, RVs, and vacant buildings.