Merced Police Department is investigating a serious traffic collision on W. 21st Street. Avoid the area to prevent delays.

Merced police investigated a major-injury traffic collision on West 21st Street near Canal Street on Thursday morning. The Police Department Traffic Unit was on scene and West 21st was closed between Canal and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. It was reopened around noon.

In just the first 19 days of the year, five people have been shot and three of those were killed in the city of Merced.

Two 14-year-old boys, Xavier Barragan and Nehemiah Green, were found shot to death near the Merced Behavioral Center on E. 13th Street, and police are investigating the incident as a possible