Carwash Will Raise Funds for Funeral

Friends and relatives of a 20-year-old man who was shot to death in a suspected gang-related attack this week will hold a carwash Sunday to raise money for his funeral.

Alvaro Zamarripa had just used an automated teller machine inside a Lucky supermarket and was pulling out the parking lot at about 3 p.m. Tuesday when two suspected gang members walked up to his car and shot him in the chest.

Witnesses said the two suspects appeared to be laughing after they shot Zamarripa. No arrests have been made in connection with the crime.

Members of Zamarripa’s family say they don’t have the funds to give the victim a proper burial. And even though he had a history of gang involvement, they say they are shocked at his death because he had recently turned his life around.

“He was working, he was going to church every weekend and he was spending a lot of time with his family,” said Zamarripa’s cousin, Blanca Gonzalez of Glendale. “He wasn’t doing anything bad.”

Gonzalez said Zamarripa had a full-time job at a McDonald’s in Highland Park and had expressed hope of training to become a truck driver.

She said he wanted to someday buy a house for his mother.

“I used to live in San Bernardino, but my brother was killed out there,” Gonzalez added. “He [Zamarripa] was the one who convinced me to move to Glendale to get away from the violence.”

The carwash will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the corner of Central Avenue and Windsor Road, in the parking lot of the Radiolab electronics store.