The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a California youth soccer coach charged with murdering a 13-year-old soccer player has been identified as an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.
In a Monday press release, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that 43-year-old Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino had been charged with “one count of murder with the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission or attempted commission of lewd acts with a child, making him eligible for the death penalty.”
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Garcia-Aquino allegedly killed 13-year-old Oscar “Omar” Hernandez in Lancaster, California, on March 28.
“On March 28, the teen was reported missing by his family after he boarded a train to Lancaster to visit Garcia-Aquino and wasn’t heard from again,” Monday’s press release stated. “Garcia-Aquino is accused of killing Oscar and then dumping his body in Oxnard.”
According to Fox News, multiple law enforcement sources told the outlet on Tuesday that the 43-year-old suspect is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security described Garcia-Aquino in a post on X, formerly Twitter, as a “depraved illegal alien who should have never been in this country.”
Fox News reported that Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna confirmed that Garcia-Aquino “was a youth travel soccer coach with the Hurricane Valley Boys Soccer Club in the Sylmar area working with different age divisions” and that he “had no reported criminal history.”
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In a statement obtained by Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bilal Essayli said, “This was an avoidable crime and the result of failed border policies. We cannot and will not tolerate illegal aliens who flout our nation’s immigration laws then prey on children.”
In an interview on Fox News, Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said that the 13-year-old victim was an “innocent child star soccer player” who “should still be alive today.” McLaughlin told Fox News that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have lodged a detainer against the illegal immigrant suspect; however, she said it was not yet clear whether the detainer would be “honored” due to Los Angeles’ status as a “sanctuary city.”
McLaughlin added, “These sanctuary city politicians are playing Russian roulette with the lives of American children and American citizens.”
In addition to the murder charge against Garcia-Aquino, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office also announced that the 43-year-old suspect was being charged with one felony count of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense against a 16-year-old boy in February of 2024 and for one felony count of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense and lewd act against a 14 or 15-year-old child in December of 2022.
