Officials: Rowland Heights man angered over eviction shoots up apartment manager’s unit

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ROWLAND HEIGHTS — A Rowland Heights man angry over is impending eviction shot up his apartment manager’s unit with a shotgun Thursday, officials said.

Frank Javier Vales, 34, was arrested Friday and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon in connection with Thursday’s 4:02 p.m. attack in the 1900 block of Fullerton Road, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Christopher Blasnek said. No one was injured.
“He was about ready to get evicted,” Blasnek said. Investigators suspected that was the motive in the alleged attack.
Deputies responded to reports of a shooting to find the manager’s unit of an apartment building had been riddled with gunfire from a shotgun, sheriff’s officials said in a written statement.
“Windows were shattered and numerous expended shotgun rounds were scattered on the ground,” according to the statement. “A male who had been sleeping inside escaped unharmed.”
The apartment manager, whom deputies suspected was the intended target of the shooting, was not home at the time, investigators added.
The attacker’s identity was not immediately known, however deputies had already been seeking Vales on suspicion of threatening his apartment manager about 1 a.m. Thursday, Blasnek said.
That information, coupled with area surveillance camera footage that captured Vales’ car and tips from the public, led deputies to identify and arrest Vales in connection with the shooting, officials said.
According to county booking records, he was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail pending a scheduled arraignment Tuesday in West Covina Superior Court.

PHOTO of Frank Vales courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

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