- In this video, the mother of homicide victim is upset because no arrest has been made in just over a month.
- Maribel Fierros moved away from California City because of concern for her family's safety. She said she didn't know who to trust.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's been just over one month since Luis Esparza Jr. was shot and killed.
There have been no arrests - and no answers for his mother.
I'm Steve Virgen, your neighborhood reporter in California City.
Now, the mother is worried that this might become another cold case in this desert town.
"He was always joking around, you know. He loved to be out with his friends and stuff. We were trying to get him to go into the military. That's what we're trying to get him to do because his two older brothers went to the Navy and the other one to the Army. We wanted him to go to the Marines," Maribel Fierros, the victim's mother, said.
Fierros says just 10 days after his 21st birthday, her son, known as Louie, was killed on Dec. 8.
Fierros says she was initially confident the case would be solved, but now she's lost hope, saying she's heard about cold cases in the past in Cal City.
"Somebody needs to get arrested. Somebody needs to be accounted for what they did. I was hoping somebody out there has seen something or heard something," Fierro's said.
She said sleepless nights and concern for her family's safety caused her to move away from Cal City on New Year's Day.
She hasn't spoken to police since.
"And I just feel that everybody knows, but nobody's saying nothing so I didn't want nothing to do with that city anymore," Fierros said.
23 ABC reached out to Cal City police for an update on the case. They responded with a statement:
"Due to the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation, the police department will not offer any information at this time."
Louie was shot on the 4800 block of Tamarack Avenue.
She says he went to a house there occasionally with friends.
Jason Yu, the owner of the home, says he usually gave away items he found as a handyman in the area.
He said Louie and others often came by.
Question: Have the police come here before?
"Oh yeah. More than once. More than a few times," Yu said.
Yu said he was not at home when the shooting took place.
Question: Do you expect an arrest to be made?
"I know it will be. But I think it's a matter of when. And I think it's because they're looking for the so-called smoking gun," Yu said.
If you have information on the case, the Cal City Police Department encourages you to call it in at (760) 373-8606.
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