An arrest has been made in the deaths of two teen girls who were found killed in a Montecito Heights park in October, a source within the Los Angeles Police Department said Wednesday, confirming the suspect’s mother’s statements to KTLA.
The bodies of Briana Nicole Gallegos, 17, and Gabriela Calzada, 19, were discovered on Oct. 28 near a hiking trail in Ernest E. Debs Regional Park.
In mid-November, several people were detained and questioned when search warrants were served in connection to the case, but no one had been arrested.
The mother of a 17-year-old boy said her son had first been questioned about a week after the bodies were found.
“My son walked in the station, gave them DNA, let the swab … and he was ruled out,” the mother said. “I walked out the station with him.”
On Tuesday, he was arrested in connection with the killings as he got off the bus from school, he said.
The mother told KTLA her son was friends with the victims but did not kill them.
On Wednesday, an LAPD source confirmed an arrest in the case to KTLA. The source could not provide the name of the individual arrested. Juvenile suspects are not typically identified unless charged as adults.
The LAPD later confirmed at a town hall meeting in Montecito Heights Wednesday evening that an arrest had been made. No other details were released, and police said more suspects were still outstanding.
The mother told KTLA she had not seen her son since he was taken into police custody. He called her last night and said he had been transferred to a juvenile detention facility in Sylmar, she said.
“Don’t you think he needs his mom beside him?” she said.
Police have released few details about the investigation, initially saying the victims’ fully clothed bodies showed evidence of blunt-force trauma. No cause of death has been released.
Police had warned that such cases take a very long time to investigate.
