Who is Paul Anthony Cruz Jr.? 20-year-old man kills Arcadia teen girl he had been dating, before shooting himself during arrest attempt

A 20-year-old man who had been dating a teenage girl shot her dead on Thursday morning (Oct. 22) after forcefully entering a residence in Arcadia, California. The suspect, who has been identified as Paul Anthony Cruz Jr., then fled to Pasadena where he tried to take his own life, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. The teen girl was declared dead at the scene. Authorities have not released her identity or age as yet.

Suspect in critical condition

Around 11 am on Thursday, the Arcadia police responded to an alert from the 800 block of West Huntington Drive. The caller reported that a man inside a residence had fired a gun, according to the Arcadia Police Department. "When officers arrived, the man had fled the scene, and officers discovered a juvenile female suffering from a gunshot wound," the police said in the release.


Police were also investigating the second shooting at South Arroyo Parkway and East Glenarm Street, which occurred about an hour after the first one. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. officials said the man was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

'He took a gun out and shot himself'

Cruz Jr. reportedly shot himself as officers were preparing to contact him. "They tried to arrest him. They tried to get his attention, and before they reached out to him, he took a gun out and shot himself," Edgar Perez, an eyewitness to the incident, said, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Video from the scene in Arcadia showed police tape around the apartment complex as neighbors said they heard arguing before gunfire.

"We heard a woman screaming, and we thought like, 'Oh, are the neighbors just fighting?' And then we heard the helicopters. We heard the cops. We came outside, and we saw the windows that were like blown out and shattered," Daisy Valdez, a neighbor, told NBC Los Angeles.

Case under investigation

The case is being investigated by the Sheriff’s Department Homicide Division, according to the police. Authorities have asked anyone with information pertaining to the case to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or log on to lacrimestoppers.org.