Juan Arteaga-Diaz, 44, a Latino male, was found shot to death on August 17, 2025, in a remote desert stretch of the unincorporated Lake Los Angeles area east of Lancaster. Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department responded around 4:45–4:50 p.m. to reports of gunfire near 215th Street East and East Avenue Q, where they discovered three victims in two vehicles on or near a vacant lot dotted with commercial trailers and debris.
Paramedics pronounced them dead at the scene, and the county medical examiner later identified the victims as Arteaga-Diaz, Nazario Ramirez, 54, and Beverly Cassese, 65; the examiner ruled Arteaga-Diaz’s death a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds.
Investigators believe Arteaga-Diaz and Ramirez were traveling west on East Avenue Q when a gunman in another vehicle pulled alongside and opened fire repeatedly into their car. Cassese was found in a separate vehicle nearby, adding to the grim tableau of two bullet-riddled vehicles amid the desert scrub. The initial hours brought few public details about a motive or any relationship among those involved, and detectives appealed for tips as they pieced together how the two scenes were connected.
By August 20, detectives had detained a person of interest, and later that day announced the arrest of 32-year-old Axel Trevino in connection with the killings. Authorities said Trevino approached in his own vehicle and opened fire before fleeing; he remained jailed as the case moved forward. Two days later, prosecutors charged Trevino with three counts of murder tied to the August 17 shootings that claimed the lives of Arteaga-Diaz, Ramirez, and Cassese. As of those reports, investigators had not publicly disclosed a motive.
