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Lucero San Pedro-Castro

Age : 29

Gender : Female

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 08/18/2025

Location : California Closets, Springdale Street and Skylab Road

City : Huntington Beach

County : Orange

State : California

Agency : South Gate Police Department, Huntington Beach Police Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police after workplace shooting

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/18/2025, 29-year-old Lucero San Pedro-Castro of Baldwin Park was shot and killed by a South Gate police officer during a traffic stop in the 8600 block of San Carlos Avenue. South Gate police had located her vehicle approximately two hours after a workplace shooting at California Closets in Huntington Beach.
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The events began at approximately 7:15 a.m. in the parking lot of California Closets at 5921 Skylab Road in Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach police alleged that San Pedro-Castro, who worked at the business, opened fire at two male coworkers. One man was struck multiple times and critically wounded. Police said she also fired at a second coworker but did not hit him.
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Witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots. San Pedro-Castro left the Huntington Beach scene before police arrived, driving a 2022 Toyota Corolla. Huntington Beach police distributed information about the vehicle to other law-enforcement agencies as investigators searched for her.
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The wounded employee was transported to a hospital in critical condition. Later Huntington Beach police reporting said he was expected to survive.
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At approximately 9:30 a.m., a South Gate police officer located the Toyota Corolla on Firestone Boulevard near San Carlos Avenue, roughly 30 miles from Huntington Beach. The officer attempted to stop the vehicle because Huntington Beach police had identified it in connection with the attempted shootings.
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San Pedro-Castro pulled into a driveway in the 8600 block of San Carlos Avenue. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which investigated the subsequent police shooting, a South Gate officer approached the stopped vehicle.
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Police alleged that San Pedro-Castro pointed a handgun toward the approaching officer. The South Gate officer then opened fire, striking her.
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Officers provided medical treatment until Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics arrived. San Pedro-Castro was transported to a hospital, where she died shortly before 10 a.m.
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Investigators recovered a handgun in connection with the South Gate encounter. Huntington Beach detectives had earlier reported that the firearm used in the California Closets shooting had not been recovered at the workplace scene.
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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau assumed responsibility for investigating the South Gate police shooting. This was therefore a separate investigation from Huntington Beach police’s investigation of the workplace shooting that preceded it.
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Subsequent reporting established that San Pedro-Castro and both men targeted at California Closets were employees of the company. Huntington Beach police described the original case as a double attempted murder investigation.
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San Pedro-Castro’s identity was released after the initial breaking-news coverage. Multiple later news organizations and the Los Angeles County investigation identified her as Lucero San Pedro-Castro, 29, of Baldwin Park.
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A deep search of later reporting, South Gate records, Los Angeles County investigative material, prosecutor sources and police-shooting coverage did not produce a public identification of the South Gate officer who shot San Pedro-Castro.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The South Gate police officer who shot Lucero San Pedro-Castro has not been publicly identified.
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South Gate Police Department has faced significant prior litigation over police gunfire. In 2019, Daniel Canizales filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit after two South Gate officers shot him while he was unarmed. Video of that encounter showed Canizales walking on Paramount Boulevard before officers opened fire. Canizales was struck by police gunfire approximately 16 times and survived with severe injuries, including injuries that left him unable to walk at the time the lawsuit was filed.
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Canizales’s lawsuit alleged unnecessary deadly force and negligence by the South Gate Police Department and City of South Gate. The shooting received extensive scrutiny after surveillance video contradicted the impression that Canizales had been armed.
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South Gate police were also involved in another fatal shooting on 04/05/2023 following a foot pursuit that ended in Vernon. Because the person killed was reportedly unarmed, the California Department of Justice assumed the investigation under AB 1506, the state law requiring independent DOJ investigations of police shootings of unarmed civilians.
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The department therefore entered the San Pedro-Castro shooting with a documented history that included federal excessive-force litigation arising from officers shooting an unarmed man numerous times and a separate fatal shooting serious enough to trigger California Department of Justice review.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.foxla.com/news/huntington-beach-shooting
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/huntington-beach-shooting-sends-1-to-hospital
https://orangecountytribune.com/2025/08/21/updated-woman-killed-by-police-tried-to-shoot-co-workers
https://www.foxla.com/news/woman-wanted-california-closets-shooting-huntington-beach-found-la-county-shot-police
https://abc7.com/post/south-gate-police-fatally-shoot-suspect-huntington-beach-california-closets-shooting-police-say/17577350/
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/1-hospitalized-in-south-gate-shooting/3765848/
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/huntington-beach-california-closets-shooting/3766611/
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/huntington-beach-shooting-south-gate-police-shooting/
https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2025-08-19/woman-suspected-of-shooting-man-at-huntington-beach-store-idd-as-store-employee
https://mynewsla.com/crime/2025/08/18/man-shot-at-huntington-beach-business-suspect-killed-by-police-in-south-gate-2/
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-south-gate-lawsuit-wrongful-shooting-20190404-story.html
https://abc7.com/post/south-gate-slapped-with-lawsuit-after-shooting-unarmed-man-16-times/5233057/
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/california-department-justice-investigating-south-gate-officer-involved-shooting