Man charged in fatal Puerto Rican Day shooting
A man has been charged in the shooting death last month of a father of two during an attack at the Puerto Rican Day parade in Humboldt Park, and authorities said Saturday the children’s mother appears to have been unintentionally shot to death by the father during the “frenzy” of the night’s events.
Anthony Lorenzi, 34, was arrested Friday in San Diego in connection with the June 19 incident that led to the deaths of 23-year-old Yasmin Perez and 24-yearold Gyovanny Arzuaga, a couple from Hanover Park who is survived by the two young children.
Lorenzi, who court records indicate is from Chicago, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Arzuaga.
Officials said their investigation most likely points to Perez being killed by a bullet that Arzuaga “accidentally” discharged.
They also said they have not found a motive that suggests the assailants knew the couple who were attacked in what police Superintendent David Brown said was a “brutal” and “brazenly committed” slaying.
“Right now, it appears that it is possibly just a car accident, and then that immediate frenzy that then occurs,” Chicago police’s Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said at a news conference. “Once again, we don’t have any exact motive.”
Arzuaga and Perez drove to Humboldt Park to attend the Puerto Rican Day parade and celebrate their culture, Arzuaga’s aunt, Vickie Ponciano, has said.
But a little after 9 p.m., near the end of the festivities, the couple was attacked by a group of men after a “very minor” traffic crash in the 3200 block of West Division Street, a police official has said.
After the crash, a group of people approached the vehicle, and “you basically had a swarm of people attack the car and were beating and pulling on the two victims ... punching them, trying to pull them out of the car,” Deenihan said.
Viral video of the shooting that circulated online showed Perez being dragged by several people out of a dark SUV with a Puerto Rican flag sticking out of a window. Deenihan said Saturday that she was then shot in the neck, and the bullet appears to be from a .40-caliber handgun that was later recovered under Arzuaga’s body.
“From everything, it points to, once again, more than likely that he (Arzuaga) discharged a firearm accidentally, causing that gunshot wound to her neck,” Deenihan said.
Two other people who were in the car with the couple appeared to be family members or friends and were not involved with the shootings, Deenihan said.
Arzuaga, who was seen on
the ground on top of Perez to cover her body, was then wounded in the head by a gunman in a white tank top, the video showed, from what Deenihan described as “execution-style shots.”
Lorenzi, who authorities believe fled to San Diego the morning after the shooting, was arrested by U.S. marshals officers without incident Friday evening at a parking lot outside an apartment complex. He has seven felony convictions, Brown said. His home address is listed as in Humboldt Park, records show.
Though Lorenzi alone was “responsible” for Arzuaga’s death, Deenihan said, there is an unspecified number of other suspects who are being sought.
“There’s nowhere to run,” Brown said. “There’s nowhere to hide. We will find you and bring you to justice, and we will go to great lengths to make sure that happens.”
Arzuaga died of his injuries the night of the shooting while Perez died a few days later. Police said Arzuaga was wounded in the head, left thigh, left hip, lower back and right shoulder, and Perez suffered a throughand-through gunshot wound to the neck.
The couple was among 14 people shot within blocks of parade festivities over that weekend. Of those 14, three others also were killed.
“We are all heartbroken and devastated beyond belief as they leave behind two beautiful children,” reads a note on a GoFundMe page set up by one of the victim’s families to pay for funeral and medical expenses.
A few days after the shooting, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said police had “promising leads” in the case.
“But as you saw from that horrific video, it wasn’t just one person. There’s one person who dealt the fatal shot, but there were others who were standing by, who dragged that poor woman out of the car, the man who was killed literally used his body as a shield and he paid for that with his life,” Lightfoot said, calling it a “horrific statement” about those involved.
Ponciano said Arzuaga was a “wonderful father,” who cared for his children and their mother.
She added that both of their mothers, Arzuaga’s and Perez’s, are in “deep pain,” and the family “has a lot of questions” about the slayings.
Arzuaga and Perez were among at least nine people slain — eight by gunfire — in Chicago over Father’s Day weekend. Those shot and killed were among more than 50 shooting victims that weekend.