Former pro skateboarder, 49ers fan, killed in California double homicide

A Pomona man led California Highway Patrol officers on a roughly 90-minute chase through Southern California on Thursday after CHP tried to stop him on suspicion of shooting two people to death at an apartment building, according to police and multiple local news reports.

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Officers responded to the 100 block of East Monterey Avenue around 3:20 p.m. on June 18 after reports of shots fired, Pomona Police Department said in a news release that day. They found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds in a fourth-floor hallway of the Monterey Station Apartments, according to KTLA-TV. Both people died at the scene despite life-saving efforts by Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel, according to the police.

Police have not officially released the victims’ names, but family members identified them to multiple outlets as Veronica Lopez, 24, a former professional skateboarder and San Francisco 49ers fan, and her neighbor Richard Brady, 48. Police named the suspect as Robert Galtman, 48, who also lived in the building and was Lopez’s boyfriend of about two years, according to her family.

CHP officers spotted Galtman in a black Kia sedan on the northbound 5 Freeway in Sylmar around 5 p.m. and tried to pull him over, triggering a pursuit that stretched over mountain roads and north toward Lancaster. Footage showed Galtman throwing objects from the car and dodging several spike strips before one finally disabled a tire. Officers used a PIT maneuver to stop the car, and Galtman surrendered around 7:10 p.m., CBS Los Angeles reported. The police statement said he was taken into custody around 7:30 p.m. A dog was also pulled from the car.

Lopez’s family said they didn’t know she was the victim until they saw the chase on live television and recognized the car and her dog. They called Pomona police, who brought them to the scene.

“She didn’t deserve this. She definitely didn’t deserve this,” her mother, Sheila Lopez, told CBS Los Angeles, adding a warning to other young women: “Do not be in an abusive relationship. Get out.”

“She was our fifth daughter. Very beautiful, very young, very talented,” her father, Coby Lopez, told CBS. “She was, used to be a pro skater, had so much positive going in her life. I don’t know what kind of problems she was going through, but we tried to help her. … So young, taken out by a coward.”

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Brady’s older brother, David Brady, told the Daily Bulletin his brother was a father of two who likely died trying to help Lopez. “My brother stuck up for those who couldn’t stick up for themselves,” he said. “Unfortunately, he walked into a situation out of his control.”

In a GoFundMe set up to cover funeral costs, Lopez’s sister Sabrina Lopez wrote that Veronica “had a way of making everyone around her feel loved and valued,” signing off with, “Forever 24. Forever loved. Forever missed.” A separate fundraiser for Brady’s two children described him as a “loving father, devoted friend” whose kindness touched many lives.

SFGATE reached out to the Pomona Police Department on Saturday requesting an update on the investigation but had not received a response as of publication.

Galtman is being held on $3.1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, records show. Anyone with information is asked to call the Pomona Police Department’s Detective Bureau at 909-620-2085.