Duarte Man Sought in Shootings at School

Police were searching Friday for a 24-year-old Duarte man suspected of killing a teacher and seriously wounding a counselor and a student at a West Covina vocational school. Concern was growing over the safety of the suspect’s girlfriend, who has not been seen by relatives since two days before the shooting on Thursday.

After the shooting, the suspect, identified by one of the victims as Martin Meza, 24, of Duarte, jumped into the passenger seat of a tan Buick Regal, license plate number 2SWW979, and fled the parking lot of North-West College with the car’s unidentified driver, police said.

Meza reportedly went to the school looking for his girlfriend, Lisa Villela, with whom he had lived for several months until a recent fight, police said Friday.

“Our best guess is that she is hiding from him,” West Covina Police Lt. Clint Collins said Friday. “We’ve been worried about her safety since last night.”

Until a week ago, Villela had been a student at the school on Garvey Avenue.

Marsha Fuerst, executive director of the 200-student school, said that the gunman was identified as Meza by Robin Stamford, who was wounded in the attack. Fuerst did not know of a connection between the alleged gunman and his victims, but added that Stamford may have been an adviser to Meza’s girlfriend.

“Nobody recognized (the gunman) except Robin,” Fuerst said.

Stamford, 27, of Rancho Cucamonga, was in good condition after undergoing surgery at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina for a gunshot wound to the stomach, police reported.

Ronald Lee, 17, a student from Rosemead, was treated at the hospital for a leg wound and released Thursday night, a nursing administrator said.

Fuerst said the gunman appeared in the front doorway of the main classroom building as school was being dismissed for the day. She said a student heard the gunman ask who owned a pickup parked in front of the building.

The administrator said no one at the school knew why the gunman asked about the truck, which she said belongs to Stamford.

She also said no one knew why the gunman opened fire.

The first to be struck was Carolyn Vasquez, 36, of West Covina, an instructor and coordinator at North-West College. She died of a chest wound shortly after being taken to Queen of the Valley Hospital, police said.

The gunman then turned the weapon on Stamford. As the suspect fled, he continued to fire, striking Lee.

Police on Friday quoted Villela’s relatives as saying that Meza allegedly beat her last week. Relatives said that, although Villela did not file a police report, she feared further harm and had gone into hiding.

“We have not heard from Lisa in about three days,” Villela’s sister-in-law said Friday. The sister-in-law, who requested anonymity, said the couple had been living together for several months in Villela’s mother’s house. She declined to elaborate on the alleged beating, saying: “I don’t want to say what happened . . . with him being on the loose.”

West Covina police said that Meza has been arrested previously on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and robbery, but provided no other details.

The family of the wounded Stamford maintained a vigil at the hospital’s intensive-care unit after driving from the Modesto area.

Donna Stamford, 51, said her son had a kidney removed and was “in a lot of pain.”

“These kinds of things you see on TV, or read on the news. You know it happens but you don’t expect it to happen to you.”

Yvette Stamford, 23, the victim’s wife, said he had worked at North-West College for five months.

School officials said that the slain woman, Vasquez, had recently been promoted after five years at the school. “Today would have been the first day of a new job” as placement director, Fuerst said Friday. “She was thought of very highly around here.”

Vasquez is survived by her husband, a 2-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.

Classes at the school were canceled on Friday. Fuerst said the school will offer grief counseling to students, staff members and their families on Monday, with classes resuming Tuesday.

Times staff writer James Quinn contributed to this story.