A young musician was gunned down in Northridge. Did childhood friends set her up?
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Around 1:30 a.m.on a Saturday last month, two masked men approached a black Cadillac Escalade idling outside a Northridge apartment building.One held a shotgun, the other a handgun.
A surveillance system captured the sounds of what happened next: A gang challenge, confusion, a demand for property.Then six shots and sounds of the Escalade speeding off.In the passenger seat was Maria De La Rosa, 22, with a gunshot wound to the chest.
A musician who performed as DELAROSA, she had a growing following at the time of her death on Nov.22.
California Prosecutors allege the suspects shot three people during a robbery shortly after 1:25 a.m.on Saturday.Authorities said De La Rosa was killed during a robbery but revealed little else about the case.
The Times recently reviewed a search warrant affidavit written by the Los Angeles Police Department detective who investigated the homicide.According to the document, De La Rosa was set up by her friends — two of three people now charged with her murder.
Arrested the day after the homicide, Francisco “G Boy” Gaytan told police he’d known De La Rosa since they were teenagers, Det.Siranush Simonyan wrote in the affidavit.
Gaytan said his friend, Benny “Player” Gomez, made plans to meet De La Rosa on Bryant Street for a “drug buy,” but the plan was to rob the musician, the affidavit said.Gaytan, Gomez and the two alleged gunmen are from Bryant Street, a gang in Northridge, according to the affidavit.
Gaytan claimed he took no part in the robbery, but after he consented to a search of his phone, Simonyan said she found text messages sent to one of the alleged gunmen, Eduardo “Active” Lopez.“Go get ski mask,” Gaytan allegedly told Lopez five hours before De La Rosa was killed.
Gaytan’s lawyer didn’t return a request for comment.Gomez was interviewed the day after Gaytan spoke to police, Simonyan wrote.
He too said...