Family and friends say final goodbye to Baldwin Park youth pastor
Friends and family pay their final respects to Baldwin Park youth pastor Daniel Diaz during a funeral at Covina Assembly of God Church.
Pomona police say Diaz, who had turned 33 a week earlier, was shot to death Nov. 11 by a lone gunman on foot at Park and Mayfair avenues.
Diaz’s killing — just hours after about 200 people gathered for an anti-violence rally at Ganesha High School in Pomona — was the latest in what police and community leaders are calling the worst year of violence in the city’s recent history.
Diaz was shot about 12:45 a.m. last Monday. He was in a car dropping off three boys who are part of his youth ministry at New Beginnings Community Church in Baldwin Park. The group was celebrating a birthday and the recent graduation of one of the boys from a youth program.
According to police, someone ran up to the passenger-side door and shot Diaz four times. No one else in the vehicle was hit, and police have no explanation for the killing. Friends and family say Diaz had no enemies.
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