Two men were shot dead and two others were wounded as gunfire erupted and two men trying to flee crashed their car late Friday in Pasadena, police said.

The shooting was reported just before midnight in the 100 block of West Claremont Street, a statement from Pasadena Police said. Officers found a black man, 23, fatally shot in the 70 block of Pepper Street.

Minutes later, paramedics from Pasadena Fire Station 36 reported that they were treating a black woman, 38, for a gunshot wound. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

Just after the shooting, a single-vehicle crash occurred at the intersection of California Boulevard and St. John Avenue, the police report said. Two more gunshot victims were found with the car: a black man, 23, who was fatally wounded; and another black man who was hospitalized with wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening.


Police Lt. Vasken Gourdikian said the men in the car had apparently been at the shooting scene and crashed when they tried to flee to nearby Huntington Hospital.

California Boulevard remained closed as of 5 a.m. Saturday from St. John Avenue to Fair Oaks Avenue as police investigated. A motive for the shooting was still unclear, and the identities of the victims were being withheld pending notification of their families.

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Pasadena Police at 626-744-4241 or go to lacrimestoppers.com.

marc.olson@latimes.com


Follow @molson21 on Twitter

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