Two San Diego teenagers were killed execution-style in a triple homicide Sunday morning at a Tijuana apartment complex, and Mexican authorities were continuing to search for the assailants.

The victims were Christopher Alexis Gomez, 17, a football player in his senior year at O’Farrell Charter High School, and Juan Suarez-Ojeda, 18, who graduated from Ingenuity Charter School on the shared Encanto campus earlier this year.

The third victim was Angel Said Robles, an 17-year-old Tijuana high-schooler.

Gomez’s cousin, Katheryn Garcia, said the trio had gone together to a barbecue in Ensenada last Friday and were supposed to return that same night.


A Tijuana police detective told Gomez’s family the three teens were tortured before they were shot Sunday, Garcia said.

There was no initial indication of what might have led to the brutal killings.

Staff at O’Farrell Charter School set up a GoFundMe for the families of Juan Suarez-Ojeda, left, and Christopher Gomez, right. (Courtesy of O’Farrell Charter School)

Angel Said Robles (Family photo)


The incident happened in Lomas Verdes, a high-crime area in central Tijuana with high rates of homicide, neighborhood drug dealing and domestic violence.

The semi-clothed bodies of the three victims were found early in the morning in a complex of apartments. The bodies were found outside one of the buildings, and initial police reports stated they had been shot in the head.

Mexican authorities said the San Diegans had no criminal record in Tijuana, but Said had a car theft on his record — a statement Said’s family called “a lie.”

Jorge Alvarez, head of the Baja California Attorney General’s Office in Tijuana, withheld some details in an interview Thursday, citing the ongoing investigation. But he said that preliminary information indicated that the two San Diegans were familiar with the neighborhood where they were killed.


“They did not live there, but they came to visit family members, one of them apparently did so frequently,” Alvarez said.

Said’s uncle, Juan Carlos Contreras of San Diego, said his nephew lived in the neighborhood, as did Suarez-Ojeda’s grandmother. The boys had been friends for several years, he said.

As for Gomez, Katheryn Garcia contradicted law enforcement and said her cousin had never been to Tijuana or Ensenada before this trip. Gomez was born and raised in San Diego and was not well-traveled, his cousin said, adding that he’d been to Mexico only once before, when their families traveled together in 2016 to visit other family members in Morelia, the capital of the central state of Michoacan.

Gomez’s cousin described the teen as “an innocent boy” who was the “sweetest, most selfless person.” He recently got his first job cleaning cars at a parking lot near the San Diego International Airport and planned to graduate from O’Farrell Charter next year before joining the Marines, Garcia said.


“We’re all in disbelief that this happened,” Garcia said through tears in a phone interview.

According to his family, Gomez had headed out Friday with Suarez-Ojeda, who was dating Gomez’s sister. Joined by Said, the trio apparently made it to the barbecue in Ensenada, according to those who were there. But the San Diego teens did not make it back to the U.S. that night as expected.

Said reportedly called his mother early Saturday and told her they were safe but had lost their cellphones, Garcia said. That was the last anyone heard from the group.

Family members contacted Baja California authorities and frantically searched for the missing teenagers over the weekend, Garcia said. On Sunday night, Tijuana police told them about the three bodies found outside the Lomas Verdes apartment.


“We were still holding out hope it wasn’t them,” Garcia said.

But Gomez’s uncle went to a Tijuana morgue Monday and confirmed his nephew’s identity.

Later that afternoon, news reached O’Farrell Charter about the gruesome slayings.

“It’s been pretty devastating for students and staff,” Superintendent Jonathan Dean said Wednesday night. “It’s a tough situation.”


Suarez-Ojeda and Gomez both began attending O’Farrell in the same year, when Suarez-Ojeda was in seventh grade and Gomez was in sixth grade. Four of Suarez-Ojeda’s siblings and Gomez’s younger brother still attend the schools.

Dean and his staff made social workers and counselors available Wednesday. The high school’s senior class of about 135 students met after school Thursday to discuss plans for a memorial.

The superintendent described Gomez as a “really nice, good kid” who was a leader this year during the football team’s inaugural season.

John Van Houten, a former teacher and coach at O’Farrell who taught basketball, said Gomez was a fan of the sport, with many friends on the school’s basketball team.


“He’d come to all our games,” Van Houten said. Gomez also played with them during lunchtime.

“He was so hard working, always helping his parents out,” Garcia said of her cousin, who she described as being more of a little brother. “Nobody had a bad thing to say about him, he was just so goofy, happy and always smiling.

“I know how this story sounds, like something that people hear on the news: You go to Tijuana and this happens,” Garcia said. “But he was the most selfless, kindest boy ever … This shouldn’t have happened to him.”

Suarez-Ojeda had a more difficult road through school, dropping out at one point, Dean said. The teen’s mother was instrumental in convincing him to enroll at Ingenuity, an independent study program that shares a campus with O’Farrell, to get his high school diploma.


He graduated last year.

Suarez-Ojeda also played on the school soccer team, Van Houten said.

Said attended Jose Vasconcelos high school in Tijuana and worked part-time as a barista at a coffee shop, his uncle said. Said was earning money for his own car and hoped to go to college, possibly to be an industrial engineer.

“His name Angel was what he was to all his family,” Contreras said. “A great kid with good grades in school, kind, lovable. He will be missed.”


He said the family believes the murders were a case of mistaken identity.

“His whole family is broken,” Contreras said.

Mexican officials said they are collaborating with U.S. authorities on the investigation. “When we have this type of incident, we work together with U.S. authorities,” Alvarez said. “They help us and we help them.”

A spokeswoman for the FBI in San Diego said the agency was monitoring the situation.


Faculty at O’Farrell set up a GoFundMe site for both San Diego families, and Garcia also set up a GoFundMe to help her cousin’s family, who she said was struggling financially even just to bring his body back to San Diego.

Twitter: @Alex_Riggins


(619) 293-1710

alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com

UPDATES:

6:20 p.m. Thursday: This article was updated with additional details, including the identity of the Tijuana victim.


11 p.m. Wednesday: This article was updated with additional details.

10 p.m. Wednesday: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 8:40 p.m. Wednesday.