Who was that Halloween-masked killer who gunned down a Jack in the Box worker in El Monte?
Authorities really want to find the suspect, so the reward being offered for information about the murderer of the 25-year-old fast-food worker in El Monte stood at $45,000 Thursday.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a $20,000 reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest and prosecution. The city of El Monte has now added $25,000.
Juan Manuel Vidal was shot at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 while working at Jack in the Box 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 county’s 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.
—City News Service