(PatriotWise.com) — Police in Riverside, California, arrested a pastor and another man for attempted murder in connection to a 2023 murder-for-hire plot, the Washington Post reported.
In a March 19 press release, the Riverside Police Department said officers arrested 47-year-old Samuel Pasillas, the pastor of a Victorville Spanish-speaking church, and Long Beach resident Juan Manuel Cebreros, 55, in connection to a shooting in October 2023 that left one man injured.
Police accuse Pasillas of paying nearly $40,000 to hire someone to murder the man his daughter was dating.
According to ABC7, a third suspect is also wanted in connection to the shooting but remains at large.
The victim of the October 21 shooting, whose identity has been withheld, told police that he was in his vehicle in Riverside’s Orangecrest neighborhood when another vehicle pulled up beside him and someone in the vehicle opened fire.
The injured victim drove to the hospital, where doctors treated him for gunshot wounds.
According to Riverside police, an investigation into the shooting determined that the victim was the target of a “murder-for-hire shooting.” Evidence revealed that Pastor Pasillas met with the two hitmen and provided them with information on where his daughter’s boyfriend would be on the night of October 21. He then paid them to kill him.
The police executed search warrants for homes in Victorville, Lynwood, and Long Beach on March 13. Pasillas was subsequently arrested and charged with solicitation for murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and assault with a deadly weapon.
Cebreros was also charged with conspiracy to commit murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted murder.
Pasillas and Cebreros were arraigned last Monday, and both men pleaded not guilty, according to ABC7.
Riverside police did not say if the third suspect, currently at large, was involved in the alleged hit.
However, according to the press release, multiple individuals conducted “surveillance” on the target in the weeks leading up to the shooting.
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