Authorities again appealed to the public Wednesday to come forward with information that can lead deputies to person who fatally shot a 25-year-old fast-food worker in El Monte, with officials noting that $45,000 in reward money is being offered.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $20,000 reward for information leading to the killer. The city of El Monte is offering $25,000.
Juan Manuel Vidal, 25, was shot at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 while working at Jack in the Box eatery in the 9200 block of Flair Drive. Sheriff Jim McDonnell said the killer was wearing a Halloween mask and went into the restaurant intent on robbing it.
“According to witnesses and the camera surveillance from the scene, the suspect jumped over the front counter of the location, demanded money and then shot the victim almost immediately,” McDonnell said.
The gunman, apparently panicked, fled the store without getting any money, and got into a getaway vehicle being driven by another suspect.
County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who sponsored the reward motion, said Vidal was training to be a pharmacist tech and had gotten engaged to be married not long before he died.
His mother, Mary, wept as she appealed for help finding the culprit.
“That man has no heart,” she said. “Somebody needs to let police know where he’s at.”
McDonnell said Vidal “was a young man on the right track, doing the right things, all of the right things, working, when this suspect came in and took his life.”
Anyone with information on the shooting was asked to call sheriff’s Detectives Adan Torres or Gustavo Carrillo, (323) 890-5500, or CrimeStoppers at (800) 222-8477.
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–City News Service