A man was fatally shot today outside his workplace in South El Monte, and his alleged killer was taken into custody. Kim Baldonado reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 9, 2016.
A man was fatally shot Monday outside his workplace in South El Monte, and his alleged killer was taken into custody after the victim's co-workers detained him at the crime scene.
The man died at the scene of the shooting, which occurred about 8:25 a.m. outside Baby Blue Fashion Inc. in the 9600 block of Alpaca Street, according to the sheriff's department.
Authorities withheld his name, but family members identified him as Higinio Gonzalez, 22, who was saving up to buy his mother a home.
"When deputies arrived, they found several men holding down a male ... adult who had just shot an employee of a local business ...," according to a sheriff's statement. "Deputies placed handcuffs on the man and recovered a firearm laying nearby that the suspect had used to shoot the victim."
The suspect, was booked at the sheriff's Temple Station on suspicion of murder.
"Additional information revealed that the suspect ... rode a bicycle to the business this morning and had asked for the victim to come outside of the business," according to the sheriff's statement.
When the victim did so, the suspect pulled out a revolver and shot him multiple times, according to sheriff's investigators, who said co-workers of the victim heard the gunshots, came outside, wrestled the suspect to the ground and held him until deputies arrived.
Detectives were unsure of whether there was any relationship between the suspect and victim.
"However, a female ... co-worker of the victim has children in common with the suspect,'' the statement said. "Detectives have not determined if the suspect and the female are estranged."
A friend of the victim said Gonzalez received threatening phone calls last week from the murder suspect.
Friends said Gonzalez and the female co-worker were nothing more than friends, and that's why he didn't take the threats seriously.
"If you know you didn't do anything or haven't harmed anyone, why should you have any fear? And apparently that's what happened today," the victim's brother said.
