Man Slain as 3-Year-Old Is Abducted
A father who was apparently bent on gaining custody of his 3-year-old son broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home in Winnetka, ordered an accomplice to shoot the woman’s current boyfriend, and kidnaped the child, Los Angeles police said Saturday.
Detectives are searching for Jose Luis Barajas Lopez, 27, and two unidentified men who escaped with the boy in a dented Nissan Sentra after Jose Carlos Rodriguez was killed late Friday night.
The child’s mother, Matilda Medina, whom the gunman also fired at, was not injured, police said.
Authorities said Medina had obtained a restraining order against Lopez, and that the couple’s four-year relationship was filled with physical abuse. “We’re looking into the possibility that when she began dating another man, Lopez didn’t want to share the child anymore,” Detective Malena Heissel said.
As of late Saturday, police had been unable to locate Lopez or the child, whose name is Freddy Lopez.
Luis Lopez “has a lot of friends in the area from the west San Fernando Valley to North Hollywood, and he also has friends in Mexico,” Heissel said.
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