- California police have arrested a man wanted in connection with the deaths of a mother and daughter in Massachusetts.
- Chasity Nunez, 27, and her daughter Zella Nunez, 11, were shot and killed while sitting in a parked SUV in Worcester, Massachusetts.
- The arrest occurred about a week after the incident during a traffic stop in San Diego.
California police have arrested a man wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of a mother and her 11-year-old daughter as they sat in a parked SUV in Massachusetts, authorities said.
The man was arrested Monday during a traffic stop in San Diego, police said. It comes nearly a week after 27-year-old Chasity Nunez and his daughter Zella Nunez were found inside a car in the Worcester area. They were pronounced dead at the hospital.
The arrest came hours after the U.S. Marshals Service announced it had doubled the reward in connection with the man’s search from $5,000 to $10,000.
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The man and another man, who were arrested in Worcester on March 5, were initially charged with armed assault with intent to murder and possession of a firearm without a license.
The photo above shows Chasity Nunez of the Connecticut National Guard. Nunez and his 11-year-old daughter Zella were shot and killed while sitting in a parked SUV in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Tuesday afternoon. (Connecticut National Guard)
A man arrested in Worcester had a bail hearing Tuesday. “The charge will be upgraded to murder,” Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said at a news conference Monday night. “And if this defendant is brought back as well, he will be charged with murder.”
It was not immediately known whether the men had lawyers.
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The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that police said in court documents that surveillance footage showed “the victims parked in their vehicle and two individuals approached the vehicle and began firing shots.” He said that The video also showed a car matching the witness’ description circling the area before the shooting and then leaving, documents said. The vehicle was later found in Hartford, Connecticut.
Authorities have not disclosed a potential motive for the killing or whether there was any relationship between the man and the victim.
Chasity Nunez was a member of the Connecticut National Guard and worked as a patient safety and clinical quality coordinator at MIT Healthcare Innovation, according to her obituary. She also had a younger daughter.
Zera Nunez was a sixth-grader at Columbus Park School in Worcester who “wanted to dabble in everything from painting to singing to dancing to skating,” her obituary said. .
