Long Beach police on Monday released surveillance video of a man wanted for questioning in the killing of a woman and her 4-year-old daughter in Long Beach last month.
Carina Mancera, 26, and her daughter, Jennabel Anaya, were killed on the night of Aug. 6 at East Ninth Street and Locust Avenue. In releasing surveillance video, investigators hope someone can identify the man or provide information on his whereabouts.
"The type of crime this was, when you have a mother murdered with her 4-year-old child, if that doesn't tug at your heart and make you want to work harder, you shouldn't be in any of our jobs," Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna said.
Police said the victims and the child's father, Luis Anaya, were walking to their residence when gunfire rang out. Anaya told investigators that a man walked up to his longtime girlfriend and their daughter and without provocation opened fire, then ran off.
In one surveillance video, the heavy set man is seen wiping his brow, pacing and carting around luggage at a convenience store. In another video, he is spotted on a Metro Blue Line train to downtown Los Angeles. Both videos were taken shortly after the killings, police said.
"He's an individual detectives identified as a person of interest in this case, that they want to interview and ask further questions on," Long Police Police Lt. Lyle Cox said.
Long beach police say they have struggled for the last six weeks to come up with clues as to who would kill Mancera and her daughter, and perhaps more importantly, why. Even with the release of the videos Monday, the motive eludes them.
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"Everything's open to us right now, we don't know how many people are involved in this," Cox said.
Luis Anaya spoke with NBC4 shortly after the slayings, still in shock over having watched the killing of his girlfriend and daughter.
"There was no reason for somebody to take a little girl's life, my little girl's life," he said.
Police say Anaya has helped the investigation by providing details from that night, while they try to figure out who the person of interest is and his whereabouts.
"That's one of the things we looked at on why we believe he was leaving the state as well as conversations he had with people on the train where he indicated he was looking to potentially leave the state," Cox said.
A $40,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible.
