The shooting took place between two apartment buildings just after 7 p.m. Jan. 5. Because the victims were black and the suspect Latino, the shooting stoked fears of increasing racial tension in the San Bernardino County city.
Quinn McCaleb, 17, and Andrew Jackson, 16, were killed.
“We don’t have many murders in Redlands, so this has been a high-profile case," said police spokesman Carl Baker.
The department released a drawing of the gunman, described as a Latino male between 17 and 20 years old with a thin build, 5 feet 5 inches tall and 140 to 150 pounds. He was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants at the time of the shooting, and escaped in a dark-colored, mid-to-late 1980s Honda Accord or Honda Civic.
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects involved. Anyone with information is asked to call Sgt. Mark Hardy at (909) 798-7627 or the Redlands Police Department at (909) 798-7681.
Shortly after the shooting, Shanita Williams, the mother of McCaleb, said that racial tensions had been on the rise in the city.
As Redlands' population has grown, Williams said, a Latino gang had increasingly harassed and attacked black youths. She said her son was beaten twice and often chased home from school. In addition, racist graffiti has occasionally appeared on neighborhood walls, she said.
A week before Thanksgiving, she said, Latino gang members armed with bats and guns knocked on the doors of houses where they thought McCaleb might be. Word spread through the neighborhood, and residents called Williams and the police.
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--Phil Willon in Riverside
Photo: Sketch of shooting suspect. Credit: Redlands Police Department
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