Long Beach police release video of person of interest in mysterious August slayings of mother, daughter

Long Beach police released surveillance footage Monday of a man they hope to question in the twin killings of a mother and daughter who were gunned down just feet from their home last month, investigators said.

The man can be seen furiously wiping his brow inside a convenience store near the intersection of Locust Avenue and East 9^th Street, just minutes after Carina Mancera, 26, and her 4-year-old daughter, Jennabel Anaya, were shot and killed Aug. 6.

A second video shows the man with luggage, riding a train to San Pedro Street station in downtown L.A. Police fear he has fled the state.

Long Beach police Lt. Lloyd Cox said the man is not a suspect, simply a person of interest, but with few other leads, police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the man so they can question him.

Cox would not say how police had linked him to the shootings.

Detectives have reviewed hours of video recordings related to the shootings, including footage of the attack, but Cox said the video taken at the crime scene may not prove useful.

“We have very grainy video that doesn’t really hold any investigative value,� he said.

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The mother and daughter were returning home from grocery shopping when an assailant emerged near their home about 10:20 p.m., police have said.

The shooter opened fire on Mancera and her daughter, then fired one shot at Luis Anaya, Mancera’s longtime boyfriend and Jennabel’s father, police said. Anaya was not hurt, but Mancera died at the scene. Jennabel died at a hospital a short time later.

Police remain puzzled as to the motive of the shootings, Cox said. Anaya did not recognize the man in the surveillance images, and investigators don’t know what, if any, connection he had to the victims.

The man detectives want to interview was described as black, roughly 6 feet tall, between 220 and 250 pounds with facial hair and probably in his 20s or 30s, Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna said. In one video, he can be seen furiously wiping his forehead and neck with a white rag before buying a drink in a convenience store. He was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt.

In the second video, the man can be seen riding a northbound Blue Line train from downtown Long Beach, dragging a black rolling bag before sitting down. He was wearing a black T-shirt. The man told several people on the train he intended to leave the state, but did not say why, Cox said. He got off at the San Pedro Street station in downtown L.A.

The Long Beach City Council and the county Board of Supervisors have offered separate rewards for information leading to an arrest in the shootings, totaling $40,000. But police leaders in Long Beach have bemoaned the lack of calls to anonymous tip lines in the days after the killings.

Cox said Monday that police had received about 20 tips in the six weeks since the shootings, but most of those calls were from people expressing theories about the crime, rather than providing actual evidence.

Last month, Anaya told The Times that the shooter’s face was covered when he stepped out of the darkness near an apartment complex and began shooting.

Anaya began screaming, waking neighbor Robert Navarro, who said he came outside to find Mancera and her daughter bleeding in the street.

“The baby … she still had her eyes open,� Navarro said. “[Anaya] was trying to comfort her by calling the grandmother and the grandmother spoke to the baby on the phone.�

Anaya, a construction worker, began dating Mancera after they met at a party five years ago, neighbors and friends said last month. Jennabel was supposed to start her first year of school this month.

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UPDATES:

6 p.m.: This story was updated with information about where police say the man got on and off a Blue Line train.

4:15 p.m.: This story was updated with information provided at a Long Beach Police Department news conference.

This story first published at 1:05 p.m.