A vigil was held in San Pedro Thursday night for a 45-year-old mother of two and a devoted nurse who was tragically gunned down in a murder-suicide inside an Orange County restaurant earlier this month.
The unthinkable Oct. 14 incident occurred just before 7 p.m. inside Gui Gui Korean BBQ in The Palm Court shopping mall located at 1240 W. Imperial Highway in La Habra.
Investigators say the gunman, 35-year-old Long Beach resident Jonathan Wang, walked into the restaurant and fatally shot Jacqueline Medrano in front of customers and staff before turning the gun on himself. Both were declared deceased at the scene.
Medrano, a resident of Covina, and Wang, according to police, had previously been involved in a romantic relationship.
The 35-year-old was arrested on domestic violence charges in July after officers in Long Beach responded to a residential address and determined that he had caused injury to Medrano.
“According to the victim’s statement, Wang ‘punched Medrano one time in the mouth, grabbed her by the front of the neck, pushed her to the ground, then held her down by the back of her neck’ until he pushed her out of the room where the attack took place,” Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug P. Haubert said in a statement to KTLA a little more than a week after the deadly incident.
Wang posted bond and appeared in court on Sept. 16 where he was formally charged and served with a criminal protective order requiring he make no contact with Medrano or be within 100 feet of her.
“The criminal protect order also prohibited Wang from owning, purchasing or possessing any firearm,” Haubert’s statement added.
Family members said Medrano was doing what she could to protect herself and her 17-year-old son, but that her killer continued to stalk her even showing up at the Kaiser Permanente facility in Anaheim where the 45-year-old worked as a nurse in the urology unit.
“It just proves how hard working she was,” Medrano’s coworker Maria Barragan, who attended the vigil, told KTLA. “All that she was going through, you would have never known.”
Those who knew Medrano believe the justice system failed to protect her and say now they are left to grieve.
“She’s my hero, my role model forever in life and no one can take that away,” Magali Rodriguez, Medrano’s niece told KTLA. “She’s not a victim. She’s a hero.”
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