An investigation was underway into a shooting in Long Beach that left three people, including a local pastor, wounded, police said Wednesday.
The three victims, Pastor Peni Filivaa, his wife and a church deacon, were standing outside a home in the area of 59th Street and DeForest Avenue (map) shortly before midnight when they were shot, according to Megan Zabel with the Long Beach Police Department.
They were all rushed to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Zabel said.
A female witness at the scene identified one of the victims as a pastor at a local church.
“My father was just dropping off one of the pastors and his wife” when the shooting occurred, the woman said. “The neighbors told us that they heard seven shots, and basically all three of them got hit.”
She added that the pastor and his wife were returning to a home where the couple was house-sitting for another pastor at the Vai Ole Ola Church.
They were just getting back after a church fundraiser.
No arrests have been made in the case.
It was not immediately clear whether officers were searching for one or more people in connection with the shooting.
Police were investigating the incident as being possibly gang-related, Zabel said.
KTLA’s Crystal Garcia contributed to this report.
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