Three men were arrested in the killing of a 28-year-old single mother who was shot while driving home from a birthday party in South Los Angeles last month, police announced Thursday.
Magali Alberto was stopped at a traffic signal in the Gramercy Park neighborhood when a car pulled up beside her vehicle and several shots were fired indiscriminately through the her car’s tinted windows around 12:20 a.m. April 26, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Stacy Spell said at a news conference.
She suffered several gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
“After obtaining an overwhelming amount of video surveillance evidence, we were able to identify three suspects in this murder,” the captain said.
James Spencer, 23, Frank Adams, 29, and Darrell Robinson, 26, were all found during a joint operation with the FBI and a SWAT team on May 21, and they were arrested on suspicion of murder, according to Spell.
LAPD described the three men as local gang members.
“Although this was a gang-motivated crime, we’re not going to identify the gang that these suspects belong to, because we’re not going to give recognition or any kind of credibility to them,” Spell said.
Police said Alberto wasn’t involved in any gang activities and she didn’t know the three men arrested in her killing.
“They couldn’t have seen who was inside [the car] and it was just senseless,” Spell said.
The LAPD captain announced the arrests while surrounded by the victim’s friends and family.
They carried signs and wore shirts bearing her photos as they wept and held hands while the officer recounted the events of Alberto’s killing.
Alberto’s aunt described the young mother as a charismatic, positive person who brought laughter, joy and love to everyone she met. She said Alberto was working hard and going to school to give her parents a better life.
“The family is devastated,” she said. “Magali was a supportive sister, a loving and protective mother of a small child, who is now inconsolable all because of some heartless individuals who, one day, decided to take the life away of an innocent young lady.”
The aunt said the arrests bring some relief to the family, but “there will be a noticeable void in her absence.”
Alberto leaves behind a young daughter, according to her family.
