Arrests made in slaying of LA hero
Motive still unknown
SAN PEDRO, Calif. – Jose Quezada Jr. loved celebrating every holiday. His family managed to survive the first Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s without him. Now it was the 11th birthday of his youngest son, the baby, Brandon.
“I picked him up from school,” his mother, Sandy DeLaMora, told me Thursday. “As soon as I saw him, I broke down and he just hugged me. He said, ‘Mama, it’s going to be OK. Don’t cry. I’m OK. Dad’s here.’ ”
But only in spirit. The man his community knew as “Coach” has been gone since July 27, when he was gunned down on the edge of Wilhall Park in south Los Angeles.
The unrelenting grief from such a senseless killing has been heartbreaking. That the case has gone unsolved since July has been simply cruel.
Quezada, 46, gave of himself to lift up others. He coached basketball and baseball for nearly 30 years in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles. He believed that sports helped keep kids on the right path and away from gangs. He spent his free time mentoring youth – and adults – and fundraising for people in need.
The night he died, he had been cooking for hundreds of people, volunteering for Summer Night Lights, one of many events aimed at keeping kids off the streets.
Who would kill such a man? And why?
When Los Angeles Police Department officials announced that arrests had been made in Quezada’s killing, they could answer the first one of those questions.
All of us will need to look deeper to answer the second.
Two arrested in shooting
The Los Angeles Police Department identified the two suspects as Sergio Esteban, 28, and Estevan Hernandez, 27, both residents of San Pedro, a neighboring district of Los Angeles. Both are charged with murder and are being held in lieu of multimillion-dollar bonds. They face 35 years to life in prison if convicted.
Police said that Esteban had been arrested and held since December but that Hernandez had been a fugitive in Mexico. He was arrested Jan. 31 after being found by law enforcement there, with assistance from an FBI task force.
On Thursday, in the Harbor police station not far from Wilmington, police officers, city officials and prosecutors shared the news. Sighs of relief floated through the air. Quezada’s family was seated a few feet away. It felt like some first small step toward peace.
Police reiterated that Quezada had no apparent link to the suspects. But they offered few other details or a motive for the crime.
“I believe that this case was gang-related and gang-motivated in that the suspects for this crime are documented gang members,” said Capt. Jamie Bennett of the LAPD’s South Bureau Homicide Division. “Mr. Quezada was a community volunteer, he had no gang involvement and was completely an innocent bystander who fell victim to horrific gang violence.”
Both men had long criminal rap sheets, according to police. Esteban has been convicted of driving under the influence, vandalism, narcotics possession, vehicle theft, evading arrest and resisting arrest. Convictions for Hernandez include narcotics possession and vandalism.
Yet I have to wonder how many of these cases came early in their own lives – misdeeds or unfortunate circumstances that put them at a crossroads. What if someone like Quezada had been there to tell them, ‘Stop that and get your life together’?
After all, that’s what he did for gener
ations of other young people.
When every family suffers
I spent months reporting about Quezada’s life – and death – for a USA TODAY special report last year. He was one of three people I wrote about who were shot dead, victim to our most American contagion.
The brutal twist: These men were activists against gun violence who were killed by gun violence.
I called them neighborhood heroes. On Thursday, I knew I wasn’t the only one. I have covered crime and policing in cities across the country. I’ve rarely seen officials so broken up about a death.
“This incomprehensible murder of Mr. Quezada is an immeasurable loss to his family, to his friends, to his neighborhood, and to all of us,” LAPD Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides said.
The pain was palpable. Every law enforcement official – police, prosecutors, the special agent in charge of the criminal division of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office – offered condolences to Quezada’s family. Every one of them spoke about the loss to the Wilmington community.
Quezada’s wife was resolute. She, too, is broken, but not so much that she won’t advocate for her family – her three sons who no longer have a father. She had some words at the news conference for the accused men. She called them cowards.
And she had the same questions. “I want to know why you would cowardly come to a community event – where there were many families and children there – to shoot at a crowd. My husband did not deserve this,” DeLaMora said.
“You took his life for what? Why? Why would you do this to him?” she continued. “Not only did you destroy my family, but the pain and embarrassment that you are putting your parents through just knowing that they raised two murderers. Did you think of the pain that you would put your family through? The pain that you put my family through?”
I understand her anger. I’ve lived with this story, with this tragedy. It’s enraging. I, too, want to know why “Coach” died from a single bullet to the head.