Three men have been arrested in the 2013 killing of a Missouri college student who was home visiting family in East L.A. when he was shot, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Friday.
Gabriel Soto had gathered with friends inside an open garage in the 600 block of South McDonnell Avenue on March 25, 2013, when a man approached the area and opened fire, sheriff’s officials said.
Soto, who was one month shy of turning 22, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, and a second man survived after suffering injuries to his right leg.
After more than two years, the Sheriff’s Department held a press conference with Soto’s family in November saying the case had come to a standstill after an “exhaustive investigation.”
By the following month, the department announced three men –Jonathon Gonzalez, 28, Roque Solis, 30, and Anthony Gabriel, 25 — had been arrested and booked on suspicion of murder.
No one had claimed the reward, but clues given after the press conference led to the arrests, Sgt. Ken Perry told the Los Angeles Times.
In addition to the department’s investigation, Soto’s family repeatedly pleaded for anyone with information to come forward.
This included a gathering on the 1-year anniversary of his death in which dozens marched from Garfield High School, where Soto graduated in 2009, to the location he was shot.
“It’s going to weigh heavy on someone’s conscious because this was a family, this was a community that was destroyed by losing him,” said Soto’s older sister, Vanessa Cornejo. “He could have done great things and no one will ever get to know what he could have accomplished because his life was taken away,”
Soto, originally of Monterey Park, was studying engineering at Lincoln University in Missouri on a football scholarship, and was a “standout defensive player,” according to the Sheriff’s Department.
A motive for his killing was still not known as of Friday.
Soto and his friends were not gang members, but the three men arrested “may have some gang affiliation,” Perry told the Times.
Anyone with information was asked to contact the Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tippers could call “Crime Stoppers” at 800-222-TIPS (8477), text the letters TIPLA plus the tip to CRIMES (274637), or visit the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.