A Californian fitness influencer who boasts more than 150,000 followers on Instagram was tracked down and shot dead by her estranged husband while she was on a date in a sushi restaurant, authorities say.
Gloria Zamora, 40, died in the parking lot of Falcon Ridge Town Center in Fontana around 9.40 p.m. Saturday in what one of her seven children described as an “unimaginable act of violence.”
Investigators said that suspected shooter Thomas Lizarraga, 45, located Zamora and shot her and her date, Hector Garduno, a 43-year-old dad-of-four, outside of Summa Sushi.
The gunshots caught the attention of several off-duty law enforcement officers in the area, including a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy, Fontana Police Officer Steve Reed told ABC 7 Eyewitness News.
“Apparently, he was driving on the street outside the shopping center and heard the gunshots and saw what had happened, made a U-turn at the light, and got out of his vehicle, and confronted the suspect,” Reed said.
Lizarraga was shot dead during the confrontation with the deputy.
The other two victims were taken to a local hospital, where police said they succumbed to their injuries.
Reed said Lizarraga and Zamora were “estranged” and “were going through a divorce, that led to this.”
“We don’t know how he knew where she was at, but apparently, she had been at the restaurant for approximately an hour prior to the shooting,” he added.
Just days before the shooting, Zamora shared a clip of an appearance on the HERizon podcast with her 152,000 Instagram followers with the caption, “with husbands like these, who needs enemies?”
“Instead of you being supportive, you’re over here trying to like bring me down,” she said of her ex-partner. “‘You think you’re all that? For you to go and work out and think that you can be on social media… you’re not even all that. You have all these stretch marks.’”
The families of both Zamora and Garduno have shared their heartbreak online, as the victims leave behind a combined 11 children.
Zamora’s daughter, Jazlynee, set up a GoFundMe campaign to support the family with funeral costs and “ease the burden” on her six siblings.
“My mom was senselessly taken from us, she was murdered by my step dad Tomas, in an act of unimaginable violence,” she wrote on the fundraiser, which had raised more than $21,200 by Tuesday morning. “She leaves behind 7 beautiful children, ages 8 to 24, who are now facing a future without our mother’s warmth, guidance, and unconditional love.”
“She uplifted and inspired countless women, reminding them of their worth, their strength, and their potential,” Jazlynee Zamora continued. “She always said, ‘Women can do anything they set their minds to,’ and she lived those words every day.”
One of Garduno’s four daughters also set up a GoFundMe campaign for her father, describing him as a “hardworking man that was tragically murdered and taken too soon.”
“He lived life with strength and did everything he could for his four daughters and family,” she said. “His passing has left a hole in our hearts and a void in our lives that can never be filled.”
