CRACKED AND CUFFED

SWAT Team Arrests Father and Son in Connection With Years-Old Cold Cases

Manuel and Anthony Velasquez were taken into custody in connection with three murders that happened in 2014, 2015, and 2018.

A father and son were arrested Thursday at a home in East Los Angeles in connection with three unsolved murders dating back several years, officials said. A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team entered the residence at about 4:30 a.m. and took Anthony Velasquez, 31, and Manuel Velasquez, 51, into custody after an $80,000 reward offered by investigators turned up multiple tips. The elder Velasquez is a suspected accessory to a string of murders allegedly committed by his son between 2014 and 2018. The victims have been identified as Jesse Avalos, Eduardo Robles, and Amanda “Nikki” Lopez. Detectives had previously called the suspects “cold-blooded” men who were armed and extremely dangerous.