Trial gets underway in party shooting
5 gang members are accused in attack that left 3 dead, 9 injured
Ingrid Cortes, in a ninja costume, parked her blue car along Seventh Street in Long Beach and walked through the side gate of a house toward the backyard to celebrate her birthday at a Halloween party on Oct. 29, 2019.
She fixed herself a plate of tacos and hung out with several of her co-workers from the Hollywood Park Casino and their friends and relatives before the party's host, Daniel Chan, had a chilling message.
“Everyone needs to go in the house. I'm not playing, everyone needs to go inside,” was his message, she testified in Long Beach Superior Court on Tuesday.
Some had heard that Chan received a threatening phone call, but after a period of 15 to 20 minutes, the group was asked to return outside by Chan and his father, Cortes said.
Minutes later, she heard what she thought was the sound of fireworks, she testified. That's when she was shot.
“It felt like a really hard punch,” Cortes said. “I fell to the floor near a shade by the house.”
She was among nine people injured after three men climbed a cement wall and shot into the backyard of the house from an alleyway.
Melvin Williams, 35, of Gardena; Ricardo Torres, 28, of Inglewood; and Maurice Poe Jr., 25, of Long Beach were killed. All three suffered gunshot wounds to the head.
Torres worked with many of the other guests at Hollywood Park Casino. Williams and Poe were guests of other co-workers.
Cortes testified as the trial started for five gang members accused of carrying out the attack after thinking the party would be attended by rivals.