Suspect Sought in Pico Rivera Killings

For Rose Calderon, her only son was her life. But violence cut that life short.

“He was my baby,” she said. “We were extremely close. He never disrespected me. I don’t understand why they do these things.”

Standing outside the Pico Rivera sheriff’s station Thursday, Calderon urged community members to come forward with information on one of her son’s alleged attackers. Sheriff’s officials believe that Calderon’s son, Fernando Hernandez, 20, of Montebello, was killed in an apparently gang-related car-to-car shooting.

“I hope these guys will get what’s coming to them. They took my only son,” Calderon said. “Anybody who knew him would tell you he was a good boy.”

After receiving numerous phone calls from Pico Rivera residents, sheriff’s deputies have been able to identify two suspects in the Oct. 6 slaying of Hernandez. The same suspects are also sought in the Oct. 5 slaying of Arthur Negrete, 19, of Pico Rivera, in a similar vehicle-to-vehicle incident.

One suspect, David Morones, 19, is in custody, but Fernando Zavala, 20, is still at large.

Zavala “is very well-known in the neighborhood, and we’ve tried to emphasize to the community how important it is for anyone that may know where he is or have any information about him to contact us,” said Homicide Det. Ray Peavey.

“What we’re hoping is that either he will see this and decide that the smart thing to do would be to come in and surrender or that someone who cares about him will do the same for him,” he said.

“At this point, we have no knowledge as to his whereabouts. We’ve exhausted all the leads we had.

“We’re relatively sure that it was a retaliation shooting,” Peavey said. “We believe that Fernando Zavala shot Fernando Hernandez simply because he thought Hernandez was affiliated with the gang that he believed was responsible for a shooting the day before. Not that he thought he was the shooter, just that he was affiliated with the gang.”