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SAN PEDRO, Calif. – Jose Quesada Jr.’s youngest son Brandon celebrated his 11th birthday last week. His birthday wish was simple. He wanted his family to go to Red His West Pizza, one of the best pizzas in Wilmington.
This was also a first for me, and not just because it was his birthday. It was another first milestone without his father. Jose Quesada loved celebrating his birthday. And every holiday.
Jose’s family felt like they had somehow gotten through the first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s without him. Well, it was the baby’s birthday.
“I picked him up from school,” his mother, Sandy Delamora, told me Thursday. “As soon as I saw him, I burst into tears and he just hugged me. He said, ‘Mom, it’s going to be okay.’ don’t cry. i’m ok. Dad is here. ”
But Jose was only there in spirit.
Jose Quesada, known in his community as “Coach,” was shot to death on the edge of Wilhall Park after cooking for hundreds of people at a public event in the Wilmington neighborhood of South Los Angeles. He has been missing since July 27th. .
The unrelenting sadness caused by such a senseless murder is heartbreaking. It is absolutely cruel that this case has remained unsolved since July.
Jose dedicated himself to uplifting others. On the night he died, he was volunteering with Summer Night Lights. The event was one of many around Los Angeles aimed at keeping kids off the streets through entertainment, food and sports. Volunteers like Jose have created safe spaces for families to enjoy the city’s parks and recreation centers.
Such donations are not just something he did for one day. It was what he did with his life.
Jose Quesada, 46, coached basketball and baseball in Wilmington for nearly 30 years. He believed that sports could help set children on the right path and keep them away from gangs. He spent his free time mentoring youth and adults and raising money for those in need.
Who would kill such a man? why?
When Los Angeles Police Department officials announced that an arrest had been made in Quesada’s murder, they were able to answer the first of those questions.
However, answering the second question requires all of us to think a little deeper.
Two arrested in Wilmington shooting incident
The Los Angeles Police Department identified the two suspects as Sergio Esteban, 28, and Esteban Hernandez, 27, both of San Pedro, a neighboring area of Los Angeles. Both have been charged with murder and are being held in lieu of multimillion-dollar bail. If convicted, they could be sentenced to 35 years to life in prison.
Police said Esteban had been arrested and detained since December, while Hernandez was on the run in Mexico. After being located by local law enforcement with the assistance of an FBI task force, he was arrested on January 31 and handed over to authorities in the United States and Los Angeles on February 1.
On Thursday, at the Harbor Police Department, not far from Wilmington, police officers, city officials and prosecutors stood up and began sharing the news. A sigh of relief was in the air. Jose’s family was seated a few feet away. It felt like a small step towards peace.
Police reiterated that there was no obvious connection between Quesada and the suspects, but provided few other details or a motive for the crime.
“We believe this incident is gang-related and gang-motivated in that the suspect in this crime is a gang member,” said Lt. Jamie Bennett of the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Division Homicide Division. Stated. “Mr. Quesada is a community volunteer, has no gang affiliation, and was a completely innocent bystander who was the victim of horrific gang violence.”
Police said both men had lengthy criminal rap sheets. Esteban was convicted of driving under the influence, criminal damage to property, drug possession, vehicle theft, evading arrest, and resisting arrest. Hernandez’s convictions include drug possession and criminal damage to property charges.
But I find myself wondering how many of these incidents happened earlier in my own life – bad deeds or unfortunate circumstances that brought me to a crossroads. What would happen if someone like Jose were there and said, “Stop doing that and get your life back on track?” After all, that’s what Jose has been doing for generations.
“I can’t think of any suspects, but I know they are gang members,” Bennett said at a news conference Thursday. “I know they probably came to the area to do bad things.”
when the whole family is suffering
I spent months reporting on Quesada’s life and death last year in a special report for USA TODAY. He was one of three people shot to death, victims of the most American epidemic I’ve written about.
A brutal twist: These men were all activists against gun violence and were killed by gun violence.
I call them neighborhood heroes. Thursday, I found out I wasn’t the only one.
I’ve covered crime and police in cities across the country. I have rarely seen officials so open about a death.
“Mr. Quesada’s mysterious murder is an immeasurable loss to his family, friends, neighborhood, and all of us,” Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides said in a statement.
The pain was palpable. Law enforcement officials from all walks of life expressed their condolences to Quesada’s family, including police, prosecutors, and special agents in charge of the criminal division of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. They all spoke of the loss to the Wilmington community.
Quesada’s wife stood firm. She is hurt too, but not so much that she doesn’t defend her family, her three fatherless sons. She had these words for the men accused of robbing her of her “precious gifts”: She called them cowards. And she had the same doubts.
“I want answers,” Dela Mora said during a news conference Thursday at the LAPD’s Harbor Area Community Police Station. “I want to know why you would so cowardly come to a community event with so many families and children and shoot into the crowd. My husband did not deserve this. He is a wonderful husband. , a great father, and a great friend, and now we are left behind, torn apart, and hurting. Because of your meanness, you destroyed my family.
“What did you take his life for? Why? Why are you doing this to him?” Delamora continued. “Not only have you destroyed my family, but you are causing my parents pain and embarrassment just knowing that they raised two murderers. Have you thought about the pain you caused my family?”
I understand her anger. I have lived with this story, this tragedy. It’s infuriating. I know police and prosecutors rarely divulge secrets before a trial, but I too would like to know why Quesada died from a single bullet to his head.
When I think of Jose, I can’t help but think of the other men I wrote about in 2023.
I wrote about a man named Elijah Lewis who was shot and killed in Seattle after a traffic accident between his scooter and a man with a gun. The man’s case is still pending.
One year ago today, I wrote about another neighborhood hero, an Indianapolis man.
I never met Jose or Elijah until they died. But the Indianapolis man was someone I had known and reported on for years. His name was Richard Donnell Hamilton. We called him Coach Nell.
Like Jose, he has been coaching and mentoring children for decades. Like Jose, he too died from gun violence.
Unlike Jose, no arrests have yet been made in his death.
Will Nell’s family ever find that peace? – Nell’s family and countless other Americans who may never get justice for their loved ones.
In a country where there are more guns than people, people say they have to take responsibility. However, the murder clearance rate is the worst at around 50%. It’s half the family, half of the family like Jose, Elijah, and Nell, who don’t even have this little bit of peace.
Now everyone is suffering losses. These men accused of Jose’s murder likely have family members, including parents, siblings, partners, and loved ones. Their families lose. Their community loses. Finally, he is arrested, tried, and sentenced.
And then more guns are exchanged and more shots are fired. And the most American of epidemics is claiming yet another victim.
Suzette Hackney is a national columnist. Contact her at:@suzyscribe.
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