A murder charge was filed Wednesday against a young man accused of fatally shooting an 18-year-old Inglewood resident in Moreno Valley.
Darren Peter Zesk, 18, of Menifee is also facing sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations in connection with Saturday’s death of Massai Cole.
He’s being held in lieu of $2 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta and is slated to make his initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
According to Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Carroll, there was a confrontation between Zesk and Cole about 2 a.m. Saturday in the 16500 block of Century Street, near Krameria Avenue. The defendant allegedly pulled a handgun and shot Cole several times in the upper body, Carroll said.
Deputies reached the location within a few minutes and found the victim mortally wounded. Efforts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Zesk was located less than 30 minutes later on Huston Drive in Riverside, where he was taken into custody without a struggle, according to the sergeant.
Investigators did not disclose a possible motive, or say whether the two men were acquainted.
Zesk has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
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