Police have confirmed that a 19-year-old woman who was kidnapped in Southern California park and killed was randomly targeted.
The suspect, Gabriel Esparza, 20, was arrested and charged for shooting and killing Andrea Vazquez, Whittier police said Tuesday.
It was in the early morning hours on Sunday morning when Vazquez was with a man at the parking stalls area of Penn Park in Whittier. An armed person approached their car and sprayed bullets into the vehicle, police say.
KABC, a Los Angeles TV station, further reported that the man she was with at the time of the shooting was her boyfriend. He had left the vehicle briefly, but when he returned Vasquez was missing.
The following day, the victim’s body was found in a vegetation field in Moreno Valley, police say.
Meanwhile, her family have been left reeling following their loved one’s passing.
“I lost my daughter…my angel,” her father, Enrique Vazquez, told reporters. “It’s the saddest day.”
Vazquez was attending Fullerton College where she studied fashion, the school’s president, Cynthia Olivo, told ABC News. She was expected to begin her second year there.
“Fullerton College is devastated to learn of the news about Andrea Vazquez,” Olivo said in a statement. “We extend our condolences to her parents, family and friends.”
Following the shooting, investigators say they’ve recovered a weapon believed to have been used by Esparza. He is being held in jail without bail. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will take the criminal case on, according to police.
“It appears that Andrea Vazquez and her male companion were randomly targeted,” police said.
According to United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, the term “femicide” became “widely used to describe the killing of women. However, there is no consensus on the kind of crimes this label covers, how to record such crimes, or whether they can be regarded as ‘gender related’ when the motive is often difficult to prove or is not recorded. These issues make it challenging to compare global or regional data on femicide,’ particularly for those killings that happen outside the family.”
