A heartbroken Southern California household is talking out after their beloved daughter and sister was gunned down inside a Pomona condo complicated — solely realizing she was the sufferer whereas watching a stay police chase on tv.
Veronica Lopez, 24, was shot and killed Thursday afternoon in what police say was a double murder allegedly carried out by her boyfriend earlier than he fled, triggering a multi-agency freeway pursuit that ended along with his arrest.
Now, her grieving relations are left looking for solutions.
“Why? Why did he kill my child? Why did he kill her?” her mom, Sheila Lopez, instructed ABC7.
Officers responded simply earlier than 3:30 p.m. to stories of gunfire close to Monterey and Garey avenues in Pomona. Once they arrived, they discovered a person and a lady useless from gunshot wounds inside an condo complicated.
Authorities haven’t publicly recognized the second sufferer.
Members of the family recognized the lady as Veronica Lopez, saying she lived in San Diego and had been relationship suspect Robert Galtman for about two years regardless of repeated issues from relations in regards to the relationship.
Family members described Lopez as a brilliant, proficient younger girl whose future was stolen immediately.
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“She was our fifth daughter. Very lovely, very younger, very proficient,” her father Coby Lopez instructed CBS. “She was a professional skater, had a lot positives moving into her life. I don’t know what sort of issues she was going by way of, however we tried to assist her. … So younger, taken out by a coward.”
Relations remembered Lopez as somebody whose “smile might mild up a room” and who made everybody round her “really feel beloved and valued.”
Her sister Klarissa Lopez stated the household realized one thing was fallacious whereas watching stay tv protection of the police chase.
“We have been watching the chase after it was stay and my mother seen the automobile and the canine that they rescued. We known as Pomona police and so they confirmed it with fingerprints that it was my sister Veronica,” She instructed ABC. “Veronica was a beautiful, fantastic daughter, very vibrant, blissful and a go getter.”
Outdoors the condo complicated the place the violence unfolded, relations gathered round a rising memorial of candles and balloons, mourning a daughter, sister and pal they are saying was beloved by everybody who knew her.
After the taking pictures, investigators say Galtman fled in a black Kia sedan, prompting a countywide manhunt.
Authorities later tracked the automobile utilizing an computerized license plate reader that detected it on the northbound 5 Freeway in Sylmar. The pursuit stretched for roughly 90 minutes earlier than officers used a PIT maneuver to convey the chase to an finish.
Galtman was taken into custody and is being held on $3.1 million bail. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Pomona.
As they put together for funeral companies, Lopez’s household has launched a GoFundMe marketing campaign to assist cowl bills and honor her reminiscence.
In a tribute shared after her loss of life, relations summed up their grief in six heartbreaking phrases:
“Without end 24. Without end beloved. Without end missed.”
