Insets: Juan Marquez (Tustin Police Department) and Sandra Fernandez (GoFundMe).
According to the police, the shooting occurred around 6 p.m. on Thursday in the vicinity of Yorba Street and Medford Avenue. Officers arrived swiftly at the scene, where they discovered Fernandez on the curb, unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds. Despite the efforts of paramedics, she was pronounced dead shortly after.
Eyewitnesses provided crucial information, describing the assailant as a man dressed entirely in black, who fled the scene in an older-model, dark-colored sedan. This led investigators to identify Marquez as the prime suspect. It is alleged that he had been waiting near Fernandez’s workplace and attacked her as she made her way to her vehicle.
Following the incident, Marquez reportedly escaped across the border into Mexico via the San Ysidro Port of Entry. However, authorities successfully apprehended him upon his return to the United States. He now faces a murder charge for his actions in this deeply unsettling case.
Witnesses told cops they saw a man wearing all black fleeing the scene and driving away in a dark-colored, older-model sedan. Investigators identified Marquez as the shooter and said he “laid in wait near Sandra”s workplace.” He allegedly killed her as she walked to her car.
After the shooting, he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, per cops.
Police obtained an arrest warrant on Saturday and U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested Marquez upon his return to the country. He is now being held in the Orange County Jail without bond.
Authorities have yet to divulge a motive for the shooting. A future court date was not immediately available.
Local CW affiliate KTLA reported Fernandez was a mother of three who was starting a new job and was leaving a training session when she was killed.
“Even though it was just under a month, she already was making good relationships and having a great impact, so this is really a tragedy,” co-worker Cassie Rossel told the outlet.
Her family started a GoFundMe to raise money for a funeral. The fundraiser said her kids were ages 5 and 14, and she also had an adult son who is in college.
“No one deserves to leave there family the way she went. Words won’t describe what our family is feeling and going through right now,” the description said.
