Merced Police are searching for leads...
Officers found 2 men dead early Saturday morning, both from gunshot wounds, about a block away from the police department.
"At this point it's not clear what the motivation for the shooting was."
Neighbors say they heard gunshots at 2:30am.
Police searched the neighborhood but didn't find anything...
2 hours later, another call came in.
"It was a call for a suspicious person with a gun on a bike...When officers responded, that's when they found 2 victims."
Officers never found that suspicious person...
They're not even sure if the calls are related.
Neighbors are convinced they are, but they also say the streets are normally quiet.
"Not on this side of town, I always see people get beat up but not shot and killed."
"I feel like it's too close for comfort...It happened caddy corner from my house and that's just scary for me."
The victims have been identified...
They are Luis Morales and Benjamin Marino...
They're both 21 years old, from Merced...
Investigators say they're not from this neighborhood, and they're hoping witnesses will come forward.
"There's probably someone in that neighborhood that may have seen something even if they think it wasn't important...We're still gonna encourage them to give us a call and hopefully that information will lead to an arrest."
This is Merced's 8th and 9th murder of the year.
If you have any information you are urged to call police.
TXT 24
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