Suspects Sought in Couple’s Death

Family members Monday laid candles, flowers and a teddy bear at a Boyle Heights intersection where a West Covina couple died in a car crash linked to gunfire by suspected gang members.

Det. Scott Smith of the Los Angeles Police Department said there were few leads in the shooting that led to Sunday’s collision.

Alejandro Alberto Posada, 49, and his wife, Ester Elizabeth Posada, 43, were killed while driving home from their son’s high school orchestra performance. The son, his younger brother and a female friend suffered moderate injuries.

“It’s very bad because their sons lost their mom and dad at the same time,” Carlos Posada, uncle of Alejandro Posada, said in Spanish. He was standing at Atlantic and Lorena streets, where his nephew’s van had been struck by a car carrying three men who were fleeing gunshots.

City Councilman Jose Huizar was scheduled to hold a news conference today at Ramon Garcia Recreation Center to ask witnesses to come forward.

Huizar also plans to announce a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrests and convictions of those responsible for the shooting.

“We want to do as much as we can to find these people,” said Patricia Soto, a spokeswoman for Huizar.

The Posada family was heading home from 18-year-old Alex Posada’s spring concert at the Downey Civic Theatre about 12:45 a.m. Sunday, when a car slammed into their van.

The parents were pronounced dead at the scene.

Bryan Posada, 9, suffered a broken right arm and left leg and was scheduled to undergo surgery, said Tiffany Hagler, his fourth-grade teacher at Merlinda Elementary School in West Covina.

Hagler visited Bryan in the hospital Monday. Alex had been released but was there visiting his brother.

Alex’s friend also was released.

Hagler said the younger boy had not been told about his parents’ death, but the news was broken to his classmates at Merlinda, which Alex also attended as a child.

“They were very shocked and several of them very emotional,” Hagler said, adding that counseling would be provided.

Dina Killen, Alex’s fifth-grade teacher, who visited him at the hospital Monday, described him as mature and poised.

“He knows he has a long road ahead of him, but he’s willing to take the challenge,” Killen said.

The elementary school plans to set up a scholarship fund to help Bryan and Alex, a senior at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, pay for college.

Alex played lead bassoon in the high school’s orchestra and had several solo parts in a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” Saturday night.

Family friends said the Posadas had just dropped off Ester’s mother at her Eastside home when a Chevrolet Caprice carrying three men in their mid-20s hit the van.

The men had stopped at the Ramon Garcia Recreation Center, near the junction of the Pomona and Santa Ana freeways, for a restroom break, police said, and came under fire from the suspected gang members while returning to their car. Five to 15 suspected gang members were hanging out in the area when witnesses heard three to six shots, Smith said.

The three men fled in their car down Atlantic Street, where it sideswiped the Posadas’ silver Toyota van as it entered the intersection at Lorena Street.

Helen Castro, Alex’s chamber music coach, said she called him Monday to see how he was faring. She described him as the “rock in the family right now.”

“His main concern is his brother, and that’s what he’s focused on,” Castro said.

The mood at the high school, located on the Cal State L.A. campus, was somber Monday as students tried to absorb the news that one of their classmates had lost his parents.

“Everybody is just mesmerized and mind-boggled,” said Luigi Campa, a sophomore who plays trumpet in the orchestra. “It’s very hard to believe.”

James Clingmon, another sophomore trumpet player, said he had met Alex’s parents once at a concert. “They were kind people,” he said. “They wanted the best for Alex.”

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A fund has been set up to assist the Posadas. Donations may be sent to: Posada Family Fund, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Foundation, 5151 State University Drive, Library North, Room 1034, Los Angeles, CA 90032.