“They have the tools now to commit violent felonies, said Sgt. Albert Carrillo, who works out of the San Diego County Sheriff station in San Marco.
Carrillo said people with prior violent convictions, and who are suspected gang members typically can t walk into a gun store and buy a weapon. A ghost gun changes that.
“What keeps me up is the possibility of them using those guns on deputies or innocent people,” Carrillo said.
And that has the family of 15-year-old Annebell Flores - terrified.
“It was shocking,” said Flores’ grandfather, Robert Espinosa, sitting outside his Oceanside home. “I was at work, I got the phone call, I just broke down, I couldn’t even walk. Still to this day, I think about it, I get weak in the knees because she was my baby.”
VISTA
It’s been less than a year since a 17-year-old was gunned down on Smilax Road, an unsolved killing on a residential street lined with apartment complexes and working class homes between Vista and San Marcos.
The teen’s slaying suspected to be gang-related still tugs at apartment complex manager Leticia Solis, who was among about three dozen or so community members who showed up Thursday for a town hall meeting about gangs in Vista.
“I wanted to know what is the community doing. I wanted to know how they are going to help the kids,” said Solis, who manages a 264-unit complex on Smilax.