Pacoima Man Fatally Shot, Friend Injured After Chase

VAN NUYS — A 21-year-old Pacoima man was killed after a dispute over a girlfriend turned violent, culminating in a car chase that left another man injured, police said Thursday.

Ricardo Tellez was pronounced dead at the scene late Wednesday after being shot from another car in the 6500 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, police said. Police are seeking two men in the shooting.

Tellez, joined by two friends, had shown up at the corner of Morrison Street and Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys about 9 p.m. to confront two other men, one of whom was courting Tellez’s girlfriend, said Homicide Det. Al Aldaz of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Tellez and the man courting his girlfriend were trading blows when the second man’s friend pulled a gun.

Tellez and his friends fled in a pickup truck, but were pursued by the two men for a 4 1/2-mile chase that one officer described as a “running gun battle.”

Aldaz said it was not clear whether Tellez or his friends returned fire.

The 15-minute car chase ended at Van Nuys Boulevard, when several bullets hit Tellez and injured the arm of the pickup’s driver, Gilberto Cuevas, 20, of Pacoima.

A third person fled the scene uninjured, police said. Aldaz said the victims were not gang members, but could not say whether the assailants were members of a gang.

Officers found 11 bullet casings at the scene but believe more shots were fired, he said.

Police are asking anyone with information or a description of the two assailants to call LAPD Van Nuys Division at (818) 756-8377.