By Alexandra Mendoza
The San Diego Union-Tribune
BAJA, Calif. — A multi-agency manhunt led to the arrest Thursday night of an escaped California inmate wanted in the killing of the Tijuana chief of a state police unit that searches for foreign fugitives in Mexico, Baja California prosecutors said.
César Moisés Hernández, 35, who had been on the run since December when he first escaped from correctional custody in Central California, was located Thursday by Mexican law enforcement in the Lomas de Matamoros neighborhood in eastern Tijuana. Further details about the arrest were not immediately available.
He is suspected of killing Cmdr. Abigail Esparza Reyes, head of the Tijuana international liaison group for the Baja California State Citizen Security Force, or FESC, Mexican officials said. Esparza, 33, was an 11-year veteran of the state police and a mother of two.
On April 9, during an operation to serve an arrest warrant in Tijuana’s Barcelona Residencial neighborhood, the suspect allegedly opened fire and mortally wounded Esparza in the neck. She was rushed to a hospital, where she died.
On Thursday, the operation was carried out by the Baja California Investigation Agency, or AEI, in collaboration with the Special Operations Group of the Secretary of Defense.
Video from the Tijuana news site Punto Norte showed Hernández being escorted by Mexican officers as he was transferred to a Tijuana prison shortly after midnight Friday.
On Thursday, the suspect was identified by Baja California authorities only by his first name, as is standard practice in pending criminal cases in Mexico.
Hernández became a wanted man on both sides of the border, with the U.S. last week increasing the reward to up to $35,000 for information leading to his arrest. Some U.S. officials expressed condolences last week and said they would work with their counterparts in Mexico to bring the suspect to justice.
“Commander Esparza will be remembered as a true hero who was killed while bravely supporting binational efforts to keep our countries safe,” David Arizmendi, press attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, said last week in a statement posted on the social media platform X.
Baja California prosecutors referred to Hernandez as a “priority subject” in a news release Thursday night.
In December, Hernandez escaped from U.S. custody after arriving at the Kern County Superior Courthouse in Delano. He was serving a sentence of 80 years to life for first-degree murder in Los Angeles County.
During her eight years at the helm of the elite Mexican unit, nicknamed the “Gringo Hunters,” Esparza led operations in Baja California that resulted in the arrest of 408 fugitives from several countries, officials said.
The unsuccessful operation that killed Esparza raised questions when surveillance footage surfaced showing a man, believed to be Hernández, fleeing the scene. The suspect initially ran from the shooting scene in his underwear and was later seen changing into a yellow worker’s jacket to avoid being detected by several law enforcement officers at the site.
U.S. Marshals personnel were in the area during the operation, the federal agency said last week in a statement, “but not involved in the shooting incident.”
Gen. Laureano Carrillo, Baja California’s secretary of security, said Wednesday during Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila’s weekly press conference that an investigation is underway.
Carrillo acknowledged that there were “operational errors” during the operation, including initially a lack of the necessary officers to make the arrest and an ineffective response at the moment of the shooting, which allowed the suspect to escape, he said.
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