El Cerrito boy, 15, arrested in Richmond park killing
A 15-year-old boy was arrested Monday in the fatal shooting in May of a young Discovery Bay woman at a park in Richmond, police said.
Investigators identified an El Cerrito teen as the suspect in the killing of 20-year-old Allie Sweitzer, who was shot during an argument in Booker T. Anderson Jr. Park.
“It doesn’t feel like justice because it’s not right, none of this is right,” Sweitzer’s older sister, Teylar, told The Chronicle on Tuesday morning.
The suspect, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was arrested around 6 p.m. Monday.
Sweitzer was fatally shot about 8:45 p.m. on May 18 at the park when an argument involving her and at least one male escalated, police said.
As police went to the park to investigate the shooting, they received word that Sweitzer had been dropped off at a hospital with a gunshot wound, police said. She was pronounced dead less than two hours later.
Teylar Sweitzer, 23, said the arrest doesn’t diminish the pain of losing her younger sister, her best friend. If anything, she said, the arrest made Allie Sweitzer’s death sink in.
She said her mother received a call on Monday night from detectives alerting her that a juvenile had been arrested in the killing of her sister.
“I know it’s crazy, but my thoughts went to the child and family,” she said of the suspect. “He took my sister, but now they’re taking his life and his family’s life.”
At the time of the shooting, the victim was living in Teylar Sweitzer’s Brentwood home. On the day she was killed, Allie Sweitzer went to Richmond to visit a high school friend who had just moved into a new apartment, her sister said.
It wasn’t unusual for Allie Sweitzer to go to Richmond, Teylar Sweitzer added; the young woman had friends and family who lived in the area.
“About an hour and a half before they went to the park, I had a missed call from her,” said Teylar Sweitzer, choking up as she sobbed. “She called me every single day, no matter what.”
Growing up, Teylar Sweitzer said, she and her sister had a strong bond and were nearly inseparable.
“She went to a party, I went to the party with her. She went to a friend’s house, I went with her,” Teylar Sweitzer said.
Allie Sweitzer was born in Pleasanton and raised in Castro Valley. She graduated from high school in Discovery Bay and was working at a Subway sandwich shop in Dublin.
“Allie was and has always been a wild child. She was a free spirit,” Teylar Sweitzer said. “She wanted to do what she wanted to do, and she did it.”