Federal prosecutors charged fouror suspected gang members, members of the street gang known as Florencia 13, for the fatal shooting of an off-duty Los Angeles police officer, while attempting to rob him.
Jesse Contreras, 34; Ernesto Cisneros, 22; Luis Alfredo de la Rosa Ríos, aged 27, and Haylee Marie Grisham, aged 18, are accused of murdering officer Fernando Arroyos in a violent crime organized by the Florencia gang 13.
Prosecutors allege that the three men are members of the gang and that Grisham, Ríos’s girlfriend, is a partner.
The complaint maintains that the four defendants committed the robbery and murder “to increase and maintain their position” within the multi-generational street gang.
If convicted of the federal charges, the defendants would be subject to the penalty of death, as it was a murder in the commission of a robbery, said the federal prosecutor’s office.
The gang members are expected to be transferred to federal custody the Friday morning and appear in court later that day.
“I am grateful for the federal involvement in this case,” Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said in a press conference on Thursday night about the arrests.
“It is appropriate. I am grateful for the intervention of the US attorney and for bringing the full weight of the government against this gang, against these individuals.”
The charges appear three days after Arroyos , aged 27, and his girlfriend were attacked while parked in an alley in the unincorporated neighborhood of Florence-Firestone near Watts.
The couple was looking for a house and had stopped to take pictures of a location, when two of the men pulled up in a pickup truck and approached them, authorities said. .
According to an affidavit from an FBI agent Rios told Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators in an interview that all four were in the truck the night of the robbery — he was driving, Grisham was in the passenger seat, and Cisneros and Contreras were behind them — when they saw Rios. Arroyos and his girlfriend.
Vigi’s video The evidence of the attack shows Ríos and Cisneros pointing guns at the couple, according to the affidavit, which also says they took a chain from the officer’s neck and a black cane from his girlfriend.
After an exchange of gunfire between the two suspects and the officer, Arroyos ran into the alley and collapsed, according to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Seamus Kane. It does not clarify who fired first.
Arroyos’s girlfriend returned to the car and tried to push him inside to call 911, police said.
The assailants they fled. When Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, they took the injured officer in their squad car to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
A second video suggests that Cisneros was injured by the shots from Arroyos.
The Junction surveillance video Street shows Contreras pulling Cisneros, who appears to be injured, out of the black truck and removing clothing from him. Contreras appears to hide the clothes on the side of a house, according to the affidavit.
Ríos told Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators in an interview that the group was driving looking to “make money ”, a term for robberies, when they met the couple, according to the affidavit.
He told investigators that his nickname is “Lil J” and that he is a member of F13, as Florence is known 13, and showed the agents a tattoo of the gang on his chest and on his arm with the legend “Tiny Locos ”, according to the affidavit.
Similarly, Cisneros said that his nickname is “Gonzo” and showed several tattoos for the gang, as did Contreras, who said he had not been active since he had children.
Ríos admitted to firing a firearm during the robbery and believed that Cisneros also fired a gun.
Relinquishing their rights, told investigators that he searched the girlfriend, took her cane and that Cisneros had taken Arroyos’s wallet from his pants pocket.
Ríos admitted that he disposed of a white hoodie after it became bloodied when a bullet grazed his left rib cage, according to the statement sworn.
He also said that Cisneros gave him Arroyos’s wallet and threw it away, after taking $34.
Contreras told investigators that the chains Arroyos wore around his neck led them to rob the couple, but he did not admit to shooting, according to the affidavit.
Grisham allegedly told investigators that Ríos said: “She has a nice chain, let’s go get her”.
He said he saw Cisneros point a gun at Arroyos and say: “Give him his chains”, and that he saw Ríos, who was armed, register the woman.
Then he heard several shots, according to the affidavit, and when Cisneros got back into the truck he had a wound and said “he had a broken leg.”
Sheriff’s captain. Joe Mendoza of the department’s Homicide Bureau said the suspects stole two silver chains, one with a sword pendant, and a black bifold wallet.
Approximately 10 Minutes after the shooting, deputies at the Century Station received a call reporting a shooting victim near Junction Street and East 60th Street, Mendoza said. That person was later identified as Cisneros.
A nearby address was linked to one of the suspects, the captain said, adding that the four are believed to be responsible for other robberies in the area. . In the hours after the murder, sheriff’s homicide detectives, with the help of their counterparts at the LAPD, questioned several men and women who they believed had information about the murder, sources said. On Wednesday morning, Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced that four men had been arrested in connection with the murder, but declined to name them or provide further details.
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