Suspect in Triple Killing Named

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials on Monday identified a 36-year-old Victorville man as a suspect in a triple homicide at an Adelanto apartment complex.

The suspect, Ralphael Hernandez, was inside the victims’ apartment and had a dispute of “a personal nature” before leaving the scene with two other men shortly after witnesses heard gunshots at 1:27 a.m. Friday, authorities alleged.

“We are currently searching for Hernandez and two other ... males in the Inland Empire area, and we believe they are armed and dangerous,” said sheriff’s spokesman Chip Patterson. “We are not certain who was the exact shooter or shooters, but [Hernandez] was there, and he is the person we are most interested in.”

Katie Espinoza, a 23-year-old mother of four, was shot dead in her apartment’s garage along with Dillon Keys, 19, of Adelanto and Jerald Svek, 25, of Chino.

The children were in the apartment but were not injured. They are in the custody of county child protective services.

A witness inside the apartment told detectives that Hernandez was in the apartment “for some time” in the hours before the slayings, Patterson said.

Patterson said detectives do not know all the details, but he said that a neighbor heard an argument about money in the seconds before gunfire erupted.

Although neighbors have said they suspected Espinoza’s home was the scene of drug deals, Patterson said detectives are not describing the shootings as “a dope burn.”

Anyone with information about Hernandez’s whereabouts -- he has ties to San Bernardino County and Los Angeles -- are encouraged to contact sheriff’s homicide detectives at (909) 387-3589.