The killings were brutal. Seven people were gunned down in 2020 at an illegal cannabis grow site in the tiny Riverside community of Aguanga. Some of the victims had been asleep. Now, more than four years later, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office says investigators suspect the slaying happened during an apparent robbery involving gang members of a Laotian descent from the San Diego area, and they are asking for public help to solidify their case. Three “persons of interest” have been identified, and investigators are “working to determine their level of involvement in this incident,” Riverside County Sheriff’s homicide Sgt. Jarred Bishop said at a news conference in Riverside Friday. The names of the three people were not released. Sheriff Chad Bianco said they are confident that the three they have identified have “some type of involvement in this,” and that the department is hoping people will come forward with information that “can tie them in to their exact role.” The victims were all of Laotian descent. Bishop said the people believed to have been involved in the slayings “are also suspected of committing other violent crimes against Laotian individuals” in both the Riverside and San Diego areas. Victims of a mass killing on Sept. 7, 2020, at an illicit marijuana operation in Aguanga. (Riverside County Sheriff’s Office) Bianco asked people to come forward, to “help us help you.” “We are pleading with you to do the right thing for these victims, these victims’ families, and to protect the community from further being victimized by these criminals who prey upon us,” Bianco said. Aguanga is about 20 miles east of Temecula. No cash was found at the scene of the killings, but more than 1,000 pounds of cannabis and several hundred cannabis plants were found. “We believe that they were there for money. They were not there for marijuana,” the sheriff told reporters Friday. “There were substantial amounts of marijuana, processed marijuana left. If they were there for that, they would have taken it.” Riverside County deputies responded to the site, a residence on Highway 371, after a report of an assault with a deadly weapon came in the early morning hours of Sept. 7, 2020. Deputies found seven shooting victims — six were dead and a seventh died at a hospital. “It was a brutal murder of people while they were sleeping, or while they were being wrestled from their sleep and trying to get away,” Bianco said. The killing of the woman who died at a hospital “was particularly brutal,” he said. The slaying victims ranged in age from 44 to 64. They include one couple who was married and another who was dating. However, Bianco said they are “not 100 percent positive” on the identification of the victims, and they have been unable to contact family members of some of the victims, either in the United States or in Laos. Investigators believe the killers were at the site for about 15 minutes. “They were getting in and out as quickly as possible to steal money, and there were people there in their way,” Bianco said. “And they had no problem making sure that there was no one in their way.” Authorities said there were several people in and around the trailer where the slayings happened. “When the gunshots started ringing out, they all fled,” Bianco said. “As horrible as seven is, it could have been a lot more.” Using surveillance footage found in and around the location of the killings, investigators determined a dark-colored, mid-sized SUV was seen leaving the scene. Bishop said a similar SUV is connected to one of the persons of interest. But investigators can no longer look through it for evidence — the vehicle was destroyed, totaled in a wreck not long after the killings. Investigators obtained tens of thousands of pages of digital-media evidence related to the case, including cellphone and social media records, Bishop said. Much of it was in Laotian, he said, and it took “a substantial amount of time” to get it translated.