April 27--Los Angeles County Sheriff's homicide detectives arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of murder in connection with the weekend firebombing of a South El Monte tire shop that killed three people and injured a firefighter.
The suspect is Roberto Fuentes of Baldwin Park, who was taken into custody Sunday evening and is being held on $1-million bail.
Law enforcement sources and others at the scene said there had been a party at the tire shop Friday before the attack, and officials are trying to determine whether there is a connection.
Detectives took Fuentes into custody after reviewing video evidence from a security camera near the fiery scene, sources said.
Authorities have used forensic evidence to identify two of the three victims: 18-year-old Carlos Jimenez of El Monte and Destiny Aguirre, 18, of Azusa.
Authorities said three people were found dead inside Cheque Tires at 1252 Santa Anita Ave.
When firefighters arrived, they found a man trying to escape the fire. They tried to rescue him, but by the time they got to him, he was overcome by his injuries.
Homicide and arson personnel are investigating.
Authorities said a 911 caller reported seeing someone throw a Molotov cocktail inside the shop and then a Chevrolet Silverado driving away. But authorities say the vehicle used in the crime was actually a gold 2002 Nissan Altima that is being held as evidence.
Family, friends and customers gathered Monday morning at a makeshift memorial outside the charred ruins of the tire shop, looking for answers.
Manuel Herrera, a family friend, said one of the dead was Rigo Gonzalez, the son of the tire shop owner.
Gonzalez and a group of friends were celebrating an 18th birthday at the tire shop late Friday night before the fire started, he said.
Herrera and others said the party was for Carlos Jimenez -- who some referred to as Christopher-- a friend of Gonzalez's.
He would have turned 18 on Sunday, Herrera said.
Gonzalez, Jimenez and Jimenez's girlfriend were spending the night at the tire shop when the fire started, Herrera said.
"It is a shame, a tragedy," the 64-year-old said.
Rocio Guerrero, 16, and her mother, Atzimba Zamudio, 36, held each other and cried Monday morning.
Guerrero dated Gonzalez for two years but stopped a year ago.
He got involved with a gang then, she said, and the two stopped talking until a week ago.
"He told me he had left the gang. Towards the end he didn't want to be involved in that stuff. He wanted to be good," she said. "But it was too late."
Photographs of the three victims were tied to a fence at the tire shop along with balloons and birthday cards for Jimenez.
Ivan Sanchez, 23, said mutual friends of his and Gonzalez's recommended the tire shop as an honest and reliable business.
Sanchez said Gonzalez was a smart, jovial teen with a lot of friends. He would regularly see Gonzalez helping his father around the shop.
Sanchez said he suspected some of Gonzalez's friends who came to party Friday were involved in gangs.
Sanchez's van burned in the fire.
Friends of Gonzalez's family said the tire shop, which also had a body shop in the back, was a popular destination for people in the neighborhood to hang out, drink a few beers and pass the time.
Herrera said whenever he walked by the tire shop after church on Sundays, the owner Esequiel Gonzalez, or Cheque, would stop him and offer him food.
Ana Garcia, 46, of El Monte had been taking her cars to the family-run shop for four years.
She said the elder Gonzalez was a kind man who always joked with her, telling her to leave her kids for the afternoon so he could put them to work.
"They all felt like family," she said, crying. "It's heartbreaking."
UPDATE
3:39 a.m.: This post has been updated with the name of a suspect arrested and the names of two victims.
