Police in the city of Whittier, California, announced that Andrea Vázquez, the 19-year-old girl kidnapped on Saturday, August 19 after being injured in Penn Park in that city, was found dead in Moreno Valley. They also reported the arrest of a suspect in committing the crimes, a 20-year-old Latino man, a resident of Whittier.
According to the Whittier Police Department report, it appears Andrea and Julián were the targets of a randomly executed crime. Julián, the boyfriend was unharmed in the shooting.
In a statement they reported that Andrea’s body was found on a piece of land in the middle of the vegetation on Alessandro Boulevard and Merwin Street in Moreno Valley at 11:50 p.m. on Monday, August 21.
At the same time since yesterday at 3 in the afternoon, Gabriel Esparza was arrested, in connection with the shooting and kidnapping of the young fashion design student, resident of the city of Downey. The arrest operation was carried out by detectives from the Whittier Police Department and the community violence reduction team.
Esparza is 19 years old and was arrested, without any problem, at his place of work in the city of Lakewood on charges of murder and kidnapping. He was booked by the Whittier Police Department who are holding him in custody without the possibility of bail.
Police also recovered the weapon believed to have been used to commit the crime, as well as Esparza’s vehicle, a white 2013 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.
Andrea and her boyfriend Julián were victims of an unexpected shooting on Saturday, August 19, in the parking lot of Penn Park in the city of Whittier in southern Los Angeles County, which occurred after 11 p.m. The couple was sitting on the hood of the car when an individual fired at them from his vehicle.
Andrea’s boyfriend ran away in terror, but managed to see that Andrea had been shot in the chest. Within minutes that he returned, Andrea was no longer in the place, she only found a trace of blood.
Through her phone, Andrea’s sister managed to detect that the kidnapped girl had been taken to the Moreno Valley area, but the signal was lost there.