The woman accused of killing a man and injuring two others had been arrested on a gun charge but avoided jail time. The I-Team’s Eric Leonard reports.
The 18-year-old woman accused of murdering a man and wounding two others in a shooting at a bar in San Pedro in January had been arrested months earlier with a loaded gun, but the LA County District Attorney's Office decided against filing a felony charge that could have carried jail time, according to records from police and prosecutors.
“It's terrible. The system is horrible," said Ira McGrady, the mother of the man murdered, Tyrone Tyars, after learning that the person accused of killing her son had been jailed about three months before the shooting.
“She was released. they didn't look at it," McGardy said of prosecutors' decision not to pursue the most serious charge.
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"They just threw it under the rug," she said. "I'm not throwing this under the rug. That's my son.”
Tyars, a father of two boys, was 33 years old when he was killed at the Machista bar on Pacific Avenue on January 20. Tyars' wife and another man were also shot and survived.
LAPD reports obtained by the I-Team show the woman charged with Tyars' murder, Estrella Rojas, was stopped on November 6, 2023 by Harbor Division gang enforcement officers, who suspected she and a companion might be armed.
The officers wrote that Rojas and another woman dropped the bags they were carrying in a planter when officers began to approach them, and guns were found when the bags were searched.
"The firearm recovered from Rojas' backpack was a black Ruger American 9mm semi auto, and it had [one] live 9mm in the chamber and [16] live 9mm rounds in the magazine," the report said.
The LAPD requested prosecutors file a charge of carrying a concealed firearm, which can be prosecuted as a felony if the person arrested is "an active participant in a criminal street gang," according to the arrest documents and the California Penal Code.
The arrest reports said Rojas was an admitted member of a San Pedro street gang, had the gang's tattoos on her body, and had previously "self admitted" membership earlier in 2023.
The LA County District Attorney's Office, in its memo declining charges, listed Rojas as a gang member and named the gang she allegedly belongs to but referred the case to the LA City Attorney for a misdemeanor charge.
"Pursuant to our longstanding practice as codified in Penal Code Section 17(b) the matter was referred to the LA City Attorney because at the time of presentation she did not have a criminal history," the DA's office explained in an emailed statement Thursday.
"Our hearts are with the family of Mr. Tyrone Tyar whose life was taken during a San Pedro shooting in January 2024 that also injured several others," the statement said.
"Our office is working to hold Estrella Rojas accountable for her alleged actions in this horrific act of violence. We are committed to ensuring that Mr. Tyar’s family and the victims receive justice," it said.
Court records show Rojas pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor gun charge on Nov. 8 and was sentenced to one year of probation, along with the three days she'd already spent in jail.
LA Superior Court Judge Debra A. Cole revoked Rojas' probation in early March after Rojas was arrested by LAPD South Bureau Homicide detectives on suspicion of the January bar shooting.
“I don't understand this," McGrady said of the decisions that led to Rojas being released after the gun arrest.
“My son has two children, two sons, and I want justice for them," she said.
"It's not fair. It's not right. I am terrified in my heart. I'm so hurt. I'm broke into pieces. It's not fair.”
Rojas is awaiting trial on one count of murder with a firearm and two counts of attempted murder with a firearm for the shooting at the bar.
She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Rojas' attorney at the LA County Alternate Public Defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case or the prior arrest.
