An international manhunt is underway for an escaped killer from South Los Angeles who has been on the run since he escaped from correctional officers in December and then allegedly gunned down a Tijuana police commander last week.
Authorities said Cesar Moises Hernandez, 35, was barricaded inside a home in Tijuana’s Barcelona neighborhood when he allegedly fatally shot Cmdr. Abigail Esparza Reyes as officers closed in on him just after 1 p.m. on April 9.
Convicted killer Cesar Moises Hernandez, who has been at large since escaping California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation custody in December 2024, is suspected of slaying a beloved police commander in Mexico (Courtesy of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)Hernandez had been sought by law enforcement since he escaped during a court visit in Kern County, where he had been imprisoned since his conviction for killing a man outside a Lynwood bar where Hernandez had argued with his girlfriend.
Esparza, 33, headed the international liaison group in Tijuana for the Baja California State Citizen Security Force, an elite unit also known as the Gringo Hunters, tasked with apprehending foreign fugitives who cross the border.
The Gringo Hunters was set up in 2002 to cooperate with U.S. authorities and have since arrested more than 1,600 fugitives, according to The Guardian. The group captures more than a dozen fugitives from the United States a month: murderers, domestic abusers, high-profile financial criminals and the like, according to a Washington Post profile of Esparza.
Esparza was most bothered by the number of American pedophiles who fled to Mexico.
“We know they could repeat their crimes here,” she told the Post. “And they think they can get away with it because it’s Mexico.”
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar paid tribute to Esparza’s service, saying on Facebook her “life will be honored and her death will not go unpunished.”
Fellow state police officers, family and friends honored Esparza on April 11 with a Mass at the New Metropolitan Cathedral in Tijuana and a later service outside the Tijuana Control and Command Center, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
U.S. Consul General in Tijuana Christopher Teal, who attended the Mass, said in a statement that Esparza’s “heroic and unwavering commitment to the safety of Americans and Mexicans has left an indelible mark on the communities she has served.”
The Tijuana home where Baja California police Cmdr. Abigail Esparza Reyes was shot while serving an arrest warrant for a U.S. fugitive on April 9. (Alexandra Mendoza / The San Diego Union-Tribune)The operation to arrest Hernandez, lasting just over two hours, involved Mexico federal, state and municipal law enforcement personnel, and included helicopters and an armored vehicle. Despite the large show of force, Hernandez managed to escape and remains at large.
U.S. Marshals Service personnel were in the area but did not participate in the operation.
“They did render aid to Commander Esparza Reyes before she succumbed to injuries. We mourn her loss along with her family, friends, and colleagues,” the Marshals Service said in a statement. “We will continue to assist our international partners with the associated investigations. Those who commit violence against law enforcement officers will be held accountable.”
Video circulated by multiple news outlets purportedly shows Hernandez after the deadly shootout, jogging down a Tijuana street, quickly ducking under a tarp covering a parked Jeep, reemerging in reflective clothing apparently to disguise his appearance, and then calmly walking away.
Francisco Castro Trenti, a former homicide division coordinator for the Baja California Attorney General’s Office, criticized the botched operation on social media.
“Today’s escape of the murderer demands the uncontested dismissal of several heads of the departments involved,” he said in a Facebook post. “It is inconceivable that with so much police presence, he escaped.”
Hernandez was convicted in April 2019 of murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm for the slaying of 44-year-old Edgar Vasquez on Long Beach Boulevard in Lynwood.
In the early morning hours of June 25, 2018, Hernandez argued with his bartender girlfriend at the Las Carinosas Club on Long Beach Boulevard and then pursued Vasquez’s pickup truck, according to records filed with the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
Hernandez, who was driving a Nissan, forced the truck to pull over about a block from the bar. He then got out of the vehicle and shot Vasquez in the head. A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy found Vasquez slumped over in the driver’s seat of the truck.
Hernandez was arrested on Aug. 3, 2018.
Following his criminal conviction for first-degree murder, Hernandez was serving a sentence of 80 years to life at Kern Valley State Prison, a maximum security facility in Delano.
On the morning of Dec. 2, 2024, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officers transported Hernandez in a van to Kern County Superior Court for an appearance on in-prison charges of making a deadly weapon and drug possession. After arriving at the courthouse, Hernandez evaded the corrections officers, jumped out of the van and fled.
Video of the escape shows Hernandez, unshackled and unhandcuffed in orange prison clothing, sprinting through a grassy field while being chased by an officer who had drawn his gun.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood speculated in an interview with Bakersfield TV station KGET that Hernandez had made or been given a handcuff key, which enabled him to escape.
Hernandez is described as 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighing about 161 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair.
The Marshals Service is offering a $35,000 reward for information leading to Hernandez’s capture. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call 661-979-1187.
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