Slayings of 2 Compton men being probed

Investigators were still searching for clues this morning in the death of David Gallegos, a Compton man in a wheelchair gunned down while heading to a neighborhood restaurant Sunday.

Also killed in the shooting was the man pushing Gallegos’ wheelchair, who police identified this morning as Rigoberto Vega, 23, of Compton.

Relatives of both men described them as friends, and said they were on their way to an IHOP restaurant to pick up a takeout order at the time they were shot.

The two were heading down the 600 block of North Alameda Street at 1:30 p.m. Sunday when a car stopped, some men got out and began shooting at them on the sidewalk, according to a statement released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators believe the shooting is gang related, said Los Angeles County coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter. Sheriff’s homicide investigators did not return calls this morning and spokesmen would not say whether the victims were believed to be gang members. Relatives of both men said they were not involved in gangs.

Gallegos, 32, began using a wheelchair after he was injured in what relatives described as an accidental shooting six years ago.

He had attended Dominguez High School, then worked as a horse trainer in Sylmar, a job he loved, according to his sister, Sylvia Gomez, 17.

Gallegos is survived by a 9-year-old son, also named David Gallegos, who lives with relatives in Chicago.

Other relatives of Gallegos and Vega gathered this morning at the home that Gallegos shared with his parents a few blocks from the crime scene. They are trying to raise money to send both bodies back to Michoacan state in Mexico, where the men met as boys.

Relatives also met with a priest this morning from their nearby church, the Rev. Stan Bosch of Our Lady of Victory, and prayed.

Gomez said the shooting has had a “drastic” effect on her family, whose members are “trying to keep calm.”

“I don’t know who would do that. You just wonder why,” she said, adding that her siblings stayed away from gangs and always felt safe in their neighborhood. “We didn’t have nothing to worry about. We’re just calm people. We don’t like to mess with nobody.”

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com