Authorities arrest L.A. County man suspected of femicide in Tijuana
A Los Angeles County man was arrested this week on suspicion of killing a dancer and sex worker last week in Tijuana, and Mexican authorities allege that he could be linked to other slayings in the city.
Bryant Rivera, 30, of Downey was taken into custody by U.S. officials in connection with the death of one woman. However, Baja California Atty. Gen. Ricardo Iván Carpio Sánchez said Rivera is a suspect in the murders of three women, all in Tijuana.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Rivera at his home Thursday. He is scheduled to appear Monday in federal court in Los Angeles.
According to a complaint filed in U.S. federal court, the Baja California attorney general’s office has charged Rivera with femicide in the death of Ángela Carolina Acosta Flores, who was strangled in January 2022 in a Tijuana hotel room.
For decades, officials have recognized Mexico’s high femicide rate and violence against women in general as a major problem.
Acosta Flores began working as a dancer and “on some occasions as a sex worker” at the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club in 2021, her mother told Mexican officials.
On the night of Jan. 24, 2022, Acosta Flores texted her mother that she would be with a client in a hotel room for 30 minutes. The mother said that after the time elapsed, she texted and called her daughter multiple times but received no response.
Acosta Flores’ mother and boyfriend searched for her until approximately noon the next day, when an ambulance arrived at the hotel, and they learned that her body had been found in room 404.
A sex worker who also worked at the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club told Mexican investigators she had arranged to meet a client she said was named Bryant Rivera on the afternoon of Jan. 24. The client was from California, she told investigators.
That woman said she took the man she knew as Rivera to a hotel, then returned to the club. At around 10 p.m. that evening, she saw Rivera leave the bar with Acosta Flores, she said.
Authorities say U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance cameras caught Rivera reentering the United States on foot just after midnight on Jan. 25.
The gruesome killing of Ariadna López shocked Mexico, spurred protests in the capital and highlighted the nation’s epidemic of violence against women.
In statements late last year, Carpio Sánchez said a U.S. resident was being sought in connection with the murder of sex workers in Tijuana.
“If someone threatens the lives of our citizens, of our women, then they will have a serious problem with our justice system,” he said in a report by NBC 7 San Diego.
The circumstances of the other killings were not known. The complaint focused on Acosta Flores and did not reveal information about other victims.
In 2021, Mexico saw 1,000 femicides, the murder of women or girls because they are female.
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