WORCESTER, Mass. — Police in California have arrested a man wanted in connection with the deaths of a mother and her 11-year-old daughter in Massachusetts, who were fatally shot while sitting in a parked SUV, authorities said.
The man was arrested Monday after a car stop in San Diego, nearly a week after Chasity Nunez, 27, and her daughter, Zella Nunez, were found in the vehicle in a Worcester neighborhood, police said. They were pronounced dead at a hospital.
The arrest came hours after the U.S. Marshals Service said it had doubled a reward related to the search for the man, from $5,000 to $10,000.
The man and another man arrested in Worcester on March 5 were initially charged with armed assault with intent to murder and carrying a firearm without a licence.
The man arrested in Worcester faced a bail hearing on Tuesday. “The charge will be upgraded to murder,” Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said at a news conference Monday evening. “And if this defendant is also brought back, he will also be charged with murder.”
It was not immediately known if the men had attorneys.
Police said in court documents that surveillance footage shows “the victims parked in their vehicle and two people walk up to the vehicle and begin shooting,” according to the Worcester Telegram. & Gazette reports this. Video also showed a car matching a witness’ description driving around the area before the shooting and then leaving, the documents said. The vehicle was later found in Hartford, Connecticut.
Authorities have not released a possible motive for the killings or said whether there was a relationship between the men and the victims.
Chasity Nunez was a member of the Connecticut National Guard and worked as a patient safety and clinical quality coordinator at MIT Healthcare Innovation, according to her obituary. She also had a younger daughter.
Zella Nunez was a sixth-grade student at Columbus Park School in Worcester who “wanted to do everything from painting, singing, dancing to skating,” according to the obituary.