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1 killed, 1 injured in shooting near Santa Monica College
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Police investigate a shooting in Santa Monica that sent two men in their 20s to a hospital on Tuesday June 11, 2013. The shooting took place near Santa Monica College, where a shooting rampage four days earlier left six people dead.
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NBC Los Angeles
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Update 12:29 p.m. One of the two people shot Tuesday morning less than a mile from Santa Monica College has died. The incident comes several days after a deadly shooting near and on campus that ended with six people killed.
Santa Monica police sergeant Richard Lewis says two men in their 20s were shot near the 1500 block of Michigan Avenue.
"Upon the arrival of our officers, they found two victims down in the north alley, both suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the upper torso," Lewis said.
Both men were hospitalized.
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Police believe a male Latino in his 20s or 30s was riding in a blue Infiniti when he got out of the car, walked up to the men, shot them, then got back in the car, which sped away.
Insurance agent Cordia Bass lives on 16th Street, a block away from the shooting.
"I heard four shots — a wham, wham, wham, wham — so I hit the floor. I didn't know if it was in an alley or by my apartment building," Bass said.
Other people living in the area say they were awakened by the gunshots.
Investigators don't know yet if the shooting was gang-related.
Police are also looking into whether the incident was connected to another shooting in the same area last Sunday that wounded a biker.
Previously: Two men in their 20s were hospitalized Tuesday morning after they were shot less than a mile from Santa Monica College, according to police.
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They were shot and wounded in an alley off of 15th Street in Santa Monica at about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday morning, Sgt. Thomas McLaughlin with the Santa Monica Police Department said.
Matthew Mullen lives near the corner of Michigan and 16th. Mullen told NBC L.A. that he heard about five gunshots Tuesday morning.
"I looked out my doorway," Mullen said. "I didn't see anything and then I came downstairs a few minutes later and there was five or six police cars and two ambulances, and the ambulances took two people from the alley and put them on a gurney, and the ambulances drove away."
This comes just four days after a shooting rampage near and on the campus of Santa Monica College that left five dead, though the attacks appear to be unconnected.
News of the shooting comes at a bad time for the beleaguered city, still on edge from last week's mass shootings. Santa Monica College will pair a memorial service with its annual commencement ceremonies Tuesday evening.
Police are not releasing which hospital the victims were taken to at this time. McLaughlin said he cannot confirm the details of how the shootings happened. There are no suspects in custody at this time, McLaughlin said.
It's not immediately clear what prompted the shooting. Sgt. Richard Lewis says the neighborhood has had gang problems in the past, but it's been quiet for a long time.
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RELATED: Origin, ownership and legality of weapons in Santa Monica shooting under investigation
This story has been updated.
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