Margarita Alvarez was playing dominoes with her sister and boyfriend Fredric Collins Jr. late Saturday night when he stepped outside their apartment on Smith Street to talk with neighbors and never made it back inside.
"When I heard the gunshots, I kind of knew it was him, I knew it was him already," Alvarez said holding back tears.
Diego Torres lives next door and was the last person to see to Collins around 10:30 p.m. before he was shot multiple times in his backyard.
"I was grabbing my night shirt to put on then I heard pow, pow, pow," said Torres, who was also a good friend of Collins. "There were at least 7 or 8 continuous rounds too, they didn't stop or pause, they were gunning like they wanted him gunned down."
Collins was 33 years old and leaves behind three young children, his baby girl turned one month old the day he died. Alvarez says he was the nicest person and everyone liked him. They were together for five years and lived in their apartment on Smith Street for one year. He worked landscaping and construction jobs.
"I want to know who did it," she said. "Who would really hate him that much to do that to him?"
Frankee Reid wants to know the same for her son Neal McCree.
"It's ugly. People out there know who did this to my baby," she said. "Just let somebody know something, this is crazy."
McCree was shot on Alberta Street around 1 a.m on Sunday. He was 22 years old, and also a father of three young children. Their ages are 3, 1, and 8 months.
"He's had his ups and downs and was trying to get his life together, job searching, trying to be a part of his three kids' lives," Reid said.
Their family was celebrating a cousin's birthday when they say people they had never met before showed up, and a fight broke out.
"It was kind of scary because I was sleeping, and it was just riots out here," said Sebastian Sarti, who lives just two doors down from where McCree was shot.
McCree's mother was in her car waiting for her son. "I saw the rumble, I saw everybody scattering, I heard gunshots, but not once did I know that it was my baby laying on the ground," she said in tears.
If you have any information on the shooting of Fredric Collins Jr., call the Kern County Sheriff's Department at 661-391-7623.
If you know anything about the shooting of Neal McCree, call the Bakersfield Police Department at 661-327-7111.
