A man who allegedly shot his girlfriend — who was a former pro skateboarder — and her neighbor at a Pomona apartment building, then led authorities on a chase that stretched into Kern County, was charged Tuesday with murder.
Robert Galtman, 48, was charged with two counts of murder and one count of evading police. The murder charges include a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, opening him to a possible death sentence if prosecutors choose to pursue capital punishment. That decision is expected to be made later in the case.
The charges also include allegations that Galtman personally used a firearm, causing great bodily injury.
Galtman was expected to be arraigned sometime Tuesday in Pomona.
He is accused of killing his girlfriend, 24-year-old Veronica Lopez, and her neighbor, 48-year-old Richard Brady, on Thursday afternoon at an apartment in the 100 block of East Monterey Avenue. Pomona police said they responded to the apartment around 3:20 p.m. and found the two victims with gunshot wounds.
Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Galtman was spotted a short time later driving a black Kia sedan, and led authorities on a pursuit that wound up on the northbound Golden State (5) Freeway, eventually stretching into Kern County. California Highway Patrol officers eventually used a pursuit intervention technique, or PIT maneuver, to spin the car and bring it to a halt. Galtman was taken into custody around 7:10 p.m. Thursday.
Galtman was being held in lieu of $3.13 million bail, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department jail records.
Lopez’s family members told reporters they learned about the killings when they saw the chase on television, with Lopez’s sister saying she recognized Veronica’s car and dog. They said Lopez and Galtman were in an abusive relationship, and they believed she was trying to leave him.
They said Brady was a friend of Lopez, and he was likely trying to help her when the shooting occurred.
According to a GoFundMe page that described Lopez as the youngest of five girls and called her killing a case of domestic violence, $8,715 had been raised as of Tuesday toward a goal of $15,000.
A separate GoFundMe page on behalf of the family of Brady, who was a father of two children, had raised $2,840 toward a $6,500 target.