Two juvenile males were arrested Wednesday in the killings of two sisters who were found shot inside a burned apartment in Westchester, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The Nov. 17 killings are believed to be domestic violence-related since one of the victims was the girlfriend of one of the suspected killers, according to Officer Mike Lopez of the LAPD.
About 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday, the primary suspect was arrested in the 1900 block of 22nd Street while the second suspect was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to the murder, police said.
The suspects have not been identified since they are minors.
Their arrests come just days after Uniek Atkins, 27, and Sierra Brown, 16, were found inside an apartment in the 8600 block of Belford Avenue where a fire was reported just after 9 a.m. on Nov. 17, according to LAPD. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
The two sisters were found with gunshot wounds, with 16-year-old Brown dying of a gunshot wound to the neck, according to the Los Angeles County-Medical Examiner-Coroner. Her sister died of multiple gunshot wounds.
The day after the killings, loved ones gathered for a vigil and said the two sisters were both mothers. They had just recently moved into the apartment.
Questions surrounded their death as grieving family members couldn’t make sense of why they would be targeted.
“They weren’t in any type of gang, nothing. Just really good girls who did not deserve this,” said their cousin, Tierra Turner.
One of the relatives of the victims set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for funeral arrangements and the young children of the two sisters. The youngest is 10-months-old while the other two are ages 7 and 6.
A vehicle involved in the case was found in the 1300 block of West 35th Place, according to Lopez.
The investigation is ongoing and LAPD officials plan to present the case to the Los Angeles District Attorney for consideration of criminal charges.
Anyone with information is urged to call homicide investigators at 213-382-9470.
KTLA’s Nidia Becerra contributed to this article.