Officials to offer $40,000 reward for information on shooting deaths of Long Beach mother and daughter
Long Beach officials and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors are set to offer a $40,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who shot and killed a mother and her 4-year-old daughter in a city intersection Saturday.
Carina Mancera, 26, and her daughter, Jennabel, were gunned down at the corner of Locust Avenue and 9th Street around 10:20 p.m. on Aug. 6, police have said.
The victims were returning from a local grocery store, and the attacker also shot at Mancera’s boyfriend, Luis Anaya, police said. A motive for the attack has not been disclosed, and investigators have not said if Mancera and her daughter were the targets of the shooting or killed in a random crime.
Police Chief Robert Luna said Friday that the grieving father has told police as much as he can, but cautioned that he may not remember much given the traumatic nature of the attack.
“If I can put you in his situation for a minute of being shot at, and watching his girlfriend and daughter being murdered … I don’t know how many of us would remember many details after that,” Luna said.
Long Beach’s City Council will vote on a proposal to offer a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the killings at its August 16 meeting, and the county board of supervisors is set to vote on proposal offering a reward in the same amount, bringing the total to $40,000.
Anaya and Mancera had been dating for nearly five years, and lived in an apartment less than a block from the intersection where the shooting occurred, friends said. Both grew up in Long Beach, and Anaya worked in construction.
Residents said the neighborhood is relatively calm, and the sound of gunshots came as a surprise to people in the area on Saturday.
“How are you gonna see a family walking and go crazy?” Gabriel Sanchez, 26, a longtime friend of Mancera, asked earlier this week. “Why would you shoot a child? The child is just living life, innocent.”
Earlier this week, Long Beach homicide Sgt. Robert Woods said he was surprised that the department had not received more information from the community in the wake of the vicious killings, and Luna again pleaded for someone to step forward on Friday. Police are asking anyone with information about the killings to contact Dets. Scott Lasch and Michael Hubbard at (562) 570-7244. Anonymous tips can alo be submitted through L.A. Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-TIPS.
Follow @JamesQueallyLAT on Twitter for crime and police news in California.
UPDATES:
2:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the reward.
This article first published at 2:20 p.m.
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