SUSPECT IN DOUBLE HOMICIDE DEAD
Justice Love Peace is found in Baja California inside SUV early Monday
SAN DIEGO
An intensive manhunt for a man who police believe fatally shot his son’s mother and grandmother in Otay Mesa came to an end Monday when the man was found dead in Baja California, according to a top public safety official in the Mexican state.
Justice Love Peace, 31, was found in a white SUV rental early Monday, said Isaias Bertin Sandoval, Baja California’s secretary of public safety and citizen protection. San Diego police have not confirmed Peace’s death, and no additional details were immediately available.
Baja California state police on Sunday asked Mexican authorities to be on the lookout for Peace, who was considered armed and dangerous. In a bulletin, state police said Peace crossed the international border to Mexico about 9:50 a.m. Sunday — roughly 90 minutes after the shooting was reported. The bulletin said he was seen later in Playas de Tijuana.
According to a photo of a receipt shared with The San Diego Uniontribune, Peace rented a 2020 Porsche Cayenne from a rental company at the San Diego International Airport late Saturday. He paid to rent the small SUV for two days, at a rate of $350 a day.
Police believe Peace, also known as Jeremiah Alfred Horton, shot the two women at their home before he took off with his 6-month-old son in the SUV. Police later found the boy unharmed at an apartment complex linked to Peace in the Rolando neighborhood of San Diego.
On Monday, police Lt. Matt Dobbs said the boy was taken to the county’s Polinksy Children’s Center, an emergency shelter for children who are separated from their families.
While a motive for the double homicide was unclear, police Capt. Manny Del Toro said Peace had been at odds with the child’s mother
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over custody of the boy.
The search for Peace began after police responded to a 911 call about an argument at the home on Ebersole Drive in Otay Mesa. While officers were on their way, the caller reported hearing gunshots.
Officers found the boy’s 37-year-old mother lying in the driveway. She was taken to a hospital, where she died.
Officers then got word that a second woman was in the home. They found the boy’s 65-year-old grandmother near the front door, loaded her in a police vehicle and drove her to an awaiting ambulance, but she died before she could be taken to a hospital.
Officers looked for the boy in the home but didn’t find him. A SWAT team led an exhaustive search of the home and surrounding area, with heavily armed officers in tactical gear fanned out in the residential neighborhood west of Interstate 805.
Police also searched elsewhere for Peace. A car registered to him led a SWAT team to an address on 63rd Street in Rolando, where they found the infant with a woman. Police also found the car — a black Prius — at the apartment complex, but Peace was not located.
In Otay Mesa, neighbors of the two women who were killed said the older woman was a longtime foster parent. Martha Peña, 57, who lives three doors down, said the woman had adopted some of the children over the years, including the younger woman who was killed.
Police did not release the names of the women.