Joshua James William Morton, 30, male, White/Caucasian, was killed after midnight on July 10, 2025, when gunfire erupted along the 1600 block of Dairy Avenue in Corcoran, California. Officers responding to reports of shots and a crash found a car that had slammed into a parked SUV near a late-night food stand; the driver, identified as Joshua James William Morton, 30, had suffered fatal gunshot wounds and died at the scene. A woman who had closed her food truck was struck by the vehicle during the chaos and hospitalized with injuries. A second gunshot victim connected to the same burst of violence—19-year-old Francisco Montez—was discovered at a hospital in nearby Tulare, where he also died.
The night’s confusion unfolded quickly: a loud crash, surveillance footage capturing a car racing across Dairy Avenue, and first responders separating two simultaneous emergencies—one shooting, one pedestrian collision. Within a day, authorities released the names of the dead, confirming that Joshua Morton, 30, was from Hanford and that Francisco Montez, 19, lived in Corcoran. Obituary records later listed Joshua Morton as “Joshua James William Morton,” 30, noting his death on July 10, 2025.
Detectives opened a double-homicide investigation and asked witnesses to come forward. In the initial aftermath, police said they had not identified a suspect or motive, and no arrests were announced in the immediate press updates. Subsequent public records and local reporting surveyed for this synopsis do not document any later arrest tied to the killing of Joshua Morton, 30, male.
