Two arrests made in Sunday homicide near Farmersville

TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Tulare County Sheriff's Office has identified Erik Lopez-Ramos and Joel Lara as the suspects in a deadly drive-by shooting that happened just outside Farmersville on Sunday afternoon.

Deputies responded to the area of Avenue 280 and Road 156 for reports of a rollover car accident.

But they soon realized it was more than a crash.

Deputies discovered bullet holes in the car and the driver dead from gunshot wounds.

The victim has been identified as 23-year-old Paulino Corral.

"We have received some information of them possibly knowing each other for some time," Captain Joe Torres said. "What those interactions are about or how they knew each other is still under investigation. But it's obvious that when they saw each other at the

gas station that they knew each other."

Captain Joe Torres says surveillance video from a Visalia gas station shows the victim and suspects getting into an argument prior to the shooting.

"It's believed that at some point in time, they followed each other towards the area of the shooting," Torres said.

Authorities are not disclosing which suspect opened fire or how many times.

But they say that the motive appears to be gang-related, and that surveillance footage played a significant role in the investigation.

"So we actually obtained video surveillance from numerous locations throughout the drive and we were able to piece it together based on that video surveillance," Torres said.

Several hours after the shooting, investigators spotted the suspect vehicle in Visalia and arrested Lopez-Ramos.

Early Monday morning, the sheriff's office served a search warrant at a home in Visalia, where they arrested Lara.