San Fernando Slaying Suspect Found in Chicago

A San Fernando gang member wanted in connection with the October drive-by shooting of a former Marine was arrested in Chicago and is expected to be extradited to the San Fernando Valley to face a murder charge, authorities said Wednesday.

Ernesto Perez Torres, 24, was found Tuesday hiding in the closet of his brother’s house in Chicago, said San Fernando Police Det. Lance Steaman.

A multi-agency task force consisting of the FBI, the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Marshal’s Office arrested Torres on a federal no-bail warrant, he said.

“I am extremely pleased he’s in custody,” Steaman said. “I don’t hesitate to feel that he would have used any means necessary to keep his freedom, even if that meant hurting another citizen or police officer. I wouldn’t have put it past him.”

Torres is accused of killing Robert Rodriguez Torres, 35, on Oct. 9. The two men were not related.

Robert Torres’ mother, reached Wednesday, said she had prayed the night before that her son’s killer would be arrested before Robert’s birthday on May 4.

“God answered me this morning,” said Frances Hernandez.

She said on her son’s birthday, she and her two sons and daughter will go to Robert’s grave and tell him of the news.

“I want to take flowers and tell him justice is going to be done on his behalf; I’ve been wanting this for so long,” she said.

The search for Ernesto Torres took investigators to homes in Redding, Oceanside and at the Mexico/U.S. border where he was believed to be hiding.

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Meanwhile, the FBI Fugitive Task Force in Chicago, San Fernando police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had been keeping tabs on Torres’ relatives in Chicago.

Steaman said Torres will face an extradition hearing within the next few weeks.

The shooting occurred just after Robert Torres bought a pack of cigarettes from a liquor store on Kalisher Street. A black coupe allegedly containing five members of the Shakin’ Cat Midgets gang--of which Ernesto Torres is an admitted member, authorities said--pulled up to the curb.

Witnesses told detectives that one man got out of the car, calmly walked behind Robert Torres, pulled out a gun and opened fire point-blank. The victim was hit several times, at least once in the head. He died the next morning.

Robert Torres also once belonged to a local gang, the San Fers. He had given up gang life, his relatives say, and had served five years in the Marine Corps. But after leaving the military, he again got into trouble with the law, and while in jail had the name of his old gang tattooed on the back of his neck.

Even so, police and Robert Torres’ relatives said he had given up the gang life long before he was gunned down.

“This victim had not been an active gang member for years,” Det. Steaman said.

But the tattoo may have cost him his life. Police believe the gunman may have seen it and killed Torres in retaliation for the earlier shooting death of a friend.

Robert Torres left behind five children ranging in age from 3 months to 13 years.