A 23-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a Walnut man and a Baldwin Park police officer was seen by a neighbor earlier that evening firing a rifle into the air and reloading, a sheriff’s detective testified on Thursday, April 16, during a preliminary hearing in Pomona Superior Court.
The rifle was marked with three crosses, while “Genesis 8: 6-7″ was written on a magazine for the weapon, referring to a Bible verse about Noah opening up the ark’s window after 40 days and sending out a raven.
It wasn’t clear what the religious references meant to defendant Eduardo Roberto Medina-Berumen or how they were linked to the May 31, 2025, murders of Darius Wong, 43, and Officer Samuel Riveros, 35, on the 4200 block of Filhurst Avenue.
Judge Mike Camacho ruled there was enough from the preliminary hearing to warrant a trial for Medina-Berumen, charged with two counts of murder with special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder of an officer, two counts of attempted murder of an officer, and one count of possession of an assault weapon.
He faces life in prison without parole, or the death penalty if convicted as charged. The District Attorney’s Office had not yet decided if it would seek the death penalty.
That May evening, about 7 p.m., Darius Wong and his family went to Filhurst Avenue to attend a house-warming party. He dropped off his wife, Mindy Ting, their two children and his sister-in-law then went to find parking, sheriff’s Detective Yoon Nam testified.
Ting never saw her husband alive again.
About 15 to minutes later, Ting heard sounds she thought were fireworks, Nam said, but it was gunfire.
Baldwin police received a call about shots fired on Filhurst, and Officer Alfredo Leal arrived to find a man lying on a sidewalk in a pool of blood, sheriff’s Detective Robert McGaughey testified.
Leal turned to see Medina-Berumen pointing a rifle at him, the detective added.
“Shots are being fired,” the officer radioed in, as captured by his body-worn camera. “There’s a male with a rifle.”
Leal fired back as he used his police car and another car to shield himself. Officer Anthony Pimentel responded to the scene as well, too.
Officers Benigno Rios and Samuel Riveros, driving around and assisting with DUI investigations, heard on the police radio about the shots fired and headed to the neighborhood.
Riveros got out of the police vehicle and walked along Filhurst ahead of two other officers.
The suspect was in his yard, above the sidewalk, a prosecutor said.
A single gunshot is heard, Sgt. Ernesto Castaneda testified, and Riveros’ head snapped back and the officer fell to the ground.
Officers were able to capture Medina-Berumen on his property.
Authorities estimated there were 40 to 60 casings at the scene from the gunbattle between the suspect and the police.
Officer Pimentel suffered facial abrasions from broken glass from his vehicle, Deputy District Attorney Michael Michelena said.
Wong died from a gunshot wound to the chest while Rivera died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Baldwin Park Police Chief Robert Lopez, officers and relatives of the two men who were killed attended Thursday’s hearing. Several family members cried when detectives testified about the victims’ injuries.
After the hearing, Chief Lopez said he was pretty devastated.
“(It’s) very difficult for the families as well,” he said.