Two Men Arrested in Sunnyvale Killing of Young Mother

Sunnyvale police have arrested two men in connection with the January killing of Kembery Chirinos-Flores, a 24-year-old Mountain View resident and mother who was found fatally shot inside her car at a mobile home park two months ago.

The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety announced the arrests Monday, ending a two-month investigation into the shooting death of Chirinos-Flores, who was found on the night of January 7 in her vehicle at the Plaza Del Rey mobile home park on Vienna Drive. Authorities said the park was not her residence.

Officers arrested Gerzon Chirinos, also known as Gerzon Chirinos-Munguia, of Sunnyvale. Chirinos is the father of Chirinos-Flores’s five-year-old son, making this the latest in a pattern of domestic violence cases investigators and advocates across the Bay Area have flagged with growing alarm. Chirinos had a prior domestic violence arrest on his record from 2018, involving a different partner. Authorities also arrested Alfonso Inestroza, also known as Franquin Inestroza-Martinez, of Hollister. Police did not offer a public explanation of Inestroza’s specific role in the killing.

Both men face murder charges. Inestroza carried an active warrant from New Jersey related to an unrelated murder case, according to Sunnyvale DPS.

Sunnyvale DPS Chief Daniel Pistor spoke at a press conference Monday, describing the victim’s life and the weight of the loss her family now carries.

“Kembery was in the prime of her life. She was working two jobs to make ends meet, and she was a loving mother,” Pistor said. “This was a tragic, senseless act of violence that is fortunately extremely rare in our city.”

Pistor added that the arrests mark a significant step forward but not the end of the department’s obligations to the victim. “These arrests represent an important step toward justice for Kembery and her family,” he said. “The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety will never stop pursuing justice for victims of violent crime in our community, and we remain committed to holding offenders fully accountable.”

The Chirinos-Flores case is one of at least two recent South Bay killings that carry the hallmarks of domestic violence. On February 24, a man and a woman were discovered fatally shot inside a car in the parking lot of El Paseo de Saratoga shopping center, near Saratoga and Campbell avenues in West San Jose. San Jose police identified the male as Edgard Altamirano, 43, and said the 24-year-old woman had recently ended a relationship with him. According to investigators, Altamirano shot the woman before turning the gun on himself. The woman worked at the European Wax Center located at the same shopping center. Her identity has not been released publicly.

Both cases fit a grim and persistent pattern. Nationally, intimate partner violence accounts for a significant share of homicides involving female victims, and California is no exception. Advocates have long argued that prior domestic violence arrests, like the one on Chirinos’s record from 2018, should trigger more aggressive intervention before situations escalate to the point of murder.

Chirinos-Flores was 24 years old. She held two jobs and was raising a young child. Whatever circumstances brought her to the Plaza Del Rey mobile home park on the night of January 7 ended there, in her car, in a parking lot far from home.

For her family, the arrests close one chapter while opening the longer and harder road of a criminal prosecution. The five-year-old she left behind will grow up with the knowledge that the legal system eventually moved against the men charged with killing his mother. Whether that amounts to justice is a question no press conference can fully answer.

Anyone with additional information about either case can contact the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety or the San Jose Police Department through their respective tip lines.