Juvenile arrested in shooting death of Cal State Fullerton student
Los Angeles police have arrested a suspect in the shooting death of a Cal State Fullerton student at a Halloween party last month, authorities said Tuesday.
The suspect, who was identified only as a juvenile male, has been charged with murder in the Oct. 28 killing of 19-year-old Alex Zepeda of Wilmington, the LAPD said in a news release.
Zepeda was attending a party in the 1100 block of Cruces Street in Wilmington and walked outside to meet a few of his friends when he was shot and killed, authorities said.
Members of the rival Eastside and Westside Wilmas gangs attended the party, and the LAPD said the shooting stemmed “from decades of rivalry between these two gangs and the boundaries which divide them.”
Investigators do not believe Zepeda was a gang member, according to Officer Mike Lopez, a department spokesman.
Homicide detectives from the LAPD’s Harbor Division arrested the juvenile on Nov. 2. He is being held at the Los Padrinos Juvenile Detention Center in Downey, police said.
Zepeda was a sophomore at Cal State Fullerton and competitive soccer player who graduated from Phinneas Banning High School in 2016, according to a descrption written on a GoFundMe account setup in his memory.
“We believe it is easy to say that he touched every heart and soul he met,” the page read. “His unrepeatable personality, charm and energy kept him surrounded with love and friendship throughout his whole life.”
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