Man accused of murder arrested at local hotel
24-year-old also eyed for assault with a firearm
Detectives have identified the suspect taken into custody following a five-hour operation Thursday in which heavily-armed members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Special Enforcement Bureau shut down a portion of Parker Road and Ridge Route Road.
Officers with the Arvin Police Department with the help of tactical members of the SEB arrested 24-yearold Francisco Banos on suspicion of murder.
Banos was found staying at a hotel in Castaic by members of the Kern County Sheriff Department’s Gang Suppression Section Investigations and Street Enforcement Teams, according to a news release by the Arvin PD.
The SEB officers helped Arvin PD officers carry out a search warrant at the hotel.
The teams began their operation at 6 a.m. and it wasn’t until 1 p.m. when officers deployed a flashbang—commonly known as a stun grenade—into the hotel that the wanted man came out of the hotel room.
Banos also faces charges of assault with a firearm and of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
He was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Fabian Zuniga whose body was found April 15 on Monroe Street in Arvin. Zuniga died later in the hospital.
More than a half-dozen SWAT-like vehicles were seen positioned around the I-5 north of Parker Road. The offramps on either side of Interstate 5, were cordoned off shortly after 11 a.m. in support of the LASD operation.