Kenneth Xiong, a 19-year-old Asian male from Fresno, California, was found fatally shot in Yucaipa on the morning of May 31, 2025. At approximately 6:40 a.m., San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the Oak Glen Wash near Avenue D after receiving a report of a person down. When deputies arrived, they found Xiong suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The circumstances that brought Xiong from Fresno to Yucaipa, hundreds of miles from his home, were not immediately made public. Investigators with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Specialized Investigations Division began treating the death as a homicide and worked to determine where the shooting occurred, who Xiong had been with, and what led to his death. Authorities did not publicly announce a motive or disclose the nature of Xiong’s relationship with those later arrested.
The investigation quickly led detectives to Dennis Wright, 21, of Yucaipa. Wright was located and arrested on June 1, roughly a day after Xiong was found, on suspicion of murder. Investigators subsequently identified a second suspect, Kyle Heller, 20, also of Yucaipa. Heller was arrested in Yucaipa on June 4. Authorities announced that both men were facing murder charges in connection with Xiong’s shooting death. At the time of the June 4 reporting, inmate records showed Wright being held on $2 million bail, while Heller was being held without bail.
Publicly released information has provided few details about what investigators believe happened immediately before the shooting. Law enforcement did not announce a motive, nor did officials publicly explain how Xiong came to be in the Oak Glen Wash area with or near the accused men. Later reporting said the nonprofit organization Honoring Our Fallen described Xiong as an active-duty U.S. Army soldier and indicated that the suspects were also associated with the military, although the Sheriff’s Department itself had not publicly established the precise relationship between Xiong and the accused. Xiong was reported to have served as a Private First Class and Bradley fighting vehicle crewmember.
Xiong’s death prompted an outpouring of grief from relatives, friends, fellow service members and supporters. His remains were eventually returned to the Fresno area, where a funeral with military involvement was held in August 2025. Those accounts described a young soldier whose life had been cut short only weeks into adulthood while his family was left seeking answers about why he was killed.
The criminal investigation resulted in the arrests of Wright and Heller, but available public reporting has not established a final trial outcome or conviction for either man. Both should therefore be regarded as accused defendants unless and until guilt is established in court. Investigators asked anyone with additional information about Xiong’s killing to contact Detective Shane Crowl of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Specialized Investigations Division, while anonymous information could be provided through We-Tip.
