$20K Reward Offered In Fatal Altadena Shooting Of Toddler

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Board of Supervisors Tuesday renewed a reward for information leading to the killer of a 4-year-old boy in Altadena. Authorities believe 4-year-old Salvador Esparza was the victim of gang shooting in 2016.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger recommended reestablishing the $20,000 reward for the Altadena shooter who killed the little boy at about 10:30 p.m. on July 5, 2016. The reward expired in October 2016 and will now be available for at least the 90 days.

Detectives said a suspected gang member was chasing a 27-year-old man onto a property in the 300 block of West Figueroa Drive and fired at least 13 rounds, striking both the young man and Salvador, who was shot once in the head. The wounded man survived.

Authorities believe the shooting was gang related but that Salvador and his family -- who lived in Monrovia and were visiting friends -- were not intended targets.

At the time of the shooting, sheriff's Lt. John Corina said a person of interest had gotten into a heated, alcohol-fueled argument in the street with the live-in boyfriend of the boy's mother an hour or two before the shooting.

The boyfriend and his brother were the shooter's intended targets, Corina said.

"It's never easy when you see a child lose his life and it's never easy for anybody and of course he's not the intended target, not the intended victim in this," Corina said at the time. "You know a bullet has no name, so it just ends up striking a child who just happened to be on the porch."

Several other children were asleep inside the house when the gunfire broke out, the lieutenant said.

Anyone with additional information on either of these shootings was urged to the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS (8477).

City News Service