Deputy’s Death Was No Accident

Detectives were trying to unravel a mystery Wednesday after concluding that a sheriff’s deputy originally thought to have accidentally shot herself in the driveway of a Long Beach home was actually killed by someone else.

Maria Cecilia Rosa, 30, was found by a newspaper deliveryman slumped over the trunk of her car just before 6 a.m. Tuesday with her service handgun lying near her body. Rosa, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, was on her way to work at the Los Angeles County Jail after spending the night at the home of a fellow deputy in a quiet, middle-class section of Long Beach’s Wrigley district.

The position of Rosa’s body and its proximity to the gun led authorities to initially suspect that the gun somehow went off, perhaps as she was opening the trunk of her car. But ballistics tests found that her gun had not been fired, and an examination of her body found at least two bullet wounds from a .22-caliber gun.

Authorities now say that one or more assailants approached her -- perhaps when her back was turned.

“It was a coldblooded killing. She didn’t have a chance to defend herself,” Sheriff Lee Baca said. “Here is a person going to work at quarter to 6 in the morning in a quiet neighborhood. You expect the streets to be devoid of criminal activity. Who is truly safe? The answer is no one.”

Long Beach police detectives said they found no connection to her work so far.

At the jail, Rosa did clerical work and had little contact with inmates. She had stayed at the home of Det. Jenny Martin, a narcotics investigator in the Compton station.

But with so little to go on, officials said, they are looking at everything and asking the public for help.

“We are not ruling out any motives,” said Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts. “We will not stop until we follow up on every lead that’s possible.”

Authorities said robbery might have been involved, and they are searching for two young men seen riding in the neighborhood on bicycles at the time of the shooting. But Batts stressed that detectives don’t know whether they were involved in the slaying and have no evidence of a robbery.

More than 30 officers spent Tuesday night and Wednesday morning canvassing the neighborhood but came up with relatively few clues.

While some neighbors in the 2900 block of Eucalyptus Avenue said they heard gunshots, no one witnessed the shooting. Neighbor Erica Moreno said she heard four shots fired about 5:50 a.m. and two more shots a minute later. Another neighbor a few doors away said she heard two shots.

They said the neighborhood is generally safe except for occasional burglaries.

“To look at the neighborhood it looks quiet and peaceful. But I guess sometimes things do happen,” said Terrence McKinley, 47, whose house has been burglarized twice in five years.

Rachel Mejia, 21, said that when officers came to her home Tuesday, they noticed a screen on a bathroom had been bent and a chair was positioned to enable someone to get in. The officers told the family it was probably a burglary attempt.

At the mint-colored home where Rosa was killed, a blooming yellow daisy and a bouquet of peach-colored roses in cellophane lay near the brick path to the lockable steel screen door Wednesday.

Rosa, described as engaging, fun and pretty by friends, had been with the department six years. She was born in Sonora, Mexico, and grew up in Gilroy before attending Long Beach City College.

She lived in Pomona but often stayed at the home of Martin, a longtime friend whose family comes from Tepatitlan, a city outside Guadalajara, Mexico.

The Mexican town was where their parents were born, and the families often celebrate weddings, funerals, graduations and other social events together. Martin and Rosa had been friends before they went through the sheriff’s training academy together.

“She was really fun, really outgoing, really friendly,” said Armando Garcia, 38, a friend. “She loved ranchera music.”

Sheriff’s homicide Capt. Ray Peavy said he met Rosa last year and took an instant liking to her.

“She was very bubbly and excited about her work,” he said. “You can tell she really enjoyed her work.”

One of the few solid clues detectives have to go on is the description of the two young men on bikes.

One of them was said to be wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

An abandoned bicycle was found near the shooting scene, but it was unclear whether it was related to the case.

Peavy said the slaying is perplexing -- and it’s too early to know whether the shooting was random.

But Baca vowed action.

“We aren’t going to rest until her killer or killers are brought to justice,” he said.

*

Times staff writer Michelle Keller contributed to this report.