Rewards in Palmdale, South Gate, Lynwood Homicides, Littlerock Disappearance
Rewards in Palmdale, South Gate, Lynwood Homicides, Littlerock Disappearance
by Contributing Editor
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday renewed $20,000 rewards in four unrelated crimes, including the 2016 killing of a high school student in Palmdale and the death of a teen girl felled by a stray bullet during a Lynwood gang shooting.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger recommended extending a $20,000 county reward, set to expire Friday, in the killing of 17-year-old Jaquarius “Jay” Quinn, who was found shot about 8:30 p.m. Nov. 6, 2016, in the 2300 block of Old Harold Road, an area deputies called deserted. The Palmdale City Council has offered an additional $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Investigators said Jay shared an early Sunday dinner with family members who last saw him about 5 p.m. on the day he was killed. Detectives are unsure of a motive for the killing and said it was unclear if he was shot on the street or pushed out of a vehicle.
The R. Rex Parris High School 11th-grader’s hobbies included playing flag football with his friends, drawing, cooking and dancing. He was hoping to become an actor.
“Somebody knows what happened to my son.” the teen’s mother, Jessica Quinn, said during a January news conference. “My son didn’t deserve that. He was a kid. I mean, a child. How do you take a kid’s life like that? … I just want justice.”
Supervisor Hilda Solis recommended renewing a $20,000 reward, also set to expire Friday, for information on the gunman who fatally shot 22-year-old Isaiah Equihua.
Equihua was sitting at a bus stop with his girlfriend on the corner of Michigan and California avenues in South Gate around 11 p.m. April 13, 2015, when someone came up from behind, said something to him and then opened fire at close range.
Equihua was struck by multiple bullets and collapsed in the street as the shooter fled on foot.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas recommended that the board extend a reward — set to expire Aug. 15 — in the killing of 16-year-old Danah Rojo-Rivas, who was shot on Nov. 23, 2016, in Lynwood. Two residents have contributed additional funds to raise the reward to $30,000.
Danah was sitting in the back seat of her family’s Ford Mustang with her dog on her lap, riding home with her mother and 18-year-old brother from an evening function at the New Horizons Missionary Baptist Church. While the Mustang was stopped at a red light on eastbound Euclid Avenue at Long Beach Boulevard, the family was caught in the line of fire of a car-to-car shooting.
The intended victim, a passenger in a burgundy Saturn SUV, jumped out of the vehicle and ran behind the Mustang. The gunman continued to fire and a stray bullet pierced the rear of the Mustang and fatally struck the teen. Her mother and brother were not injured, but the family dog, a white poodle mix, bolted out of the car and was killed by oncoming traffic.
Barger also recommended renewing a $20,000 reward for information on the suspicious disappearance of then-28-year-old Monique Figueroa, who was last seen driving away from her Littlerock home in the 7200 block of East Avenue U-12 around 4 a.m. May 19, 2015.
Figueroa’s car, a 2004 burgundy Mercedes-Benz, was recovered 11 days later in an abandoned shed in Juniper Hills. Authorities said there were signs of foul play.
Figueroa had left her 2-year-old daughter in the care of her family, who reported her missing several days after she left home.
Jeff Figueroa told ABC7 the day after his daughter’s car was found that her boyfriend had been recently arrested in a murder case and she was known to hang out with gang members. He said he believed some of those acquaintances feared she would become a witness against them, though authorities told “Dateline NBC” that his daughter had refused to cooperate in the investigation.
Her father begged her captors to free her and told the station that he received a text from his daughter the day after she vanished, saying, “Had to leave; love you; be back soon.”
Investigators found no trail of cell phone or credit card use following her disappearance.
Homicide investigators received a tip in 2016 that Figueroa’s remains might be buried off the 11000 block of Pearblossom Highway in Palmdale. But a search by detectives, cadaver scent dogs and coroner’s personnel yielded no results.
The reward, set to expire Aug. 25, will now be available for at least the next 90 days.
Barger, Solis and Ridley-Thomas asked anyone with additional information in any of these cases to call the sheriff’s homicide bureau at 323-890-5500 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
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All credit goes to Contributing Editor
Originally published on https://mynewsla.com
