Seventeen-year-old Eliseo “Cheo” Sandoval Valverde, a Hispanic male from Cerritos, was killed in the early morning hours of August 31, 2025, after gunfire ripped through the south parking lot of Don Knabe Community Regional Park on Bloomfield Avenue. Witnesses told investigators that several vehicles were gathered there around 2:30 a.m. when a sudden barrage of approximately 20 to 25 shots rang out and cars sped away.
Deputies arrived minutes later to find a scene littered with shell casings but no victims. Not long after, word came that two gunshot victims had been taken by others to a nearby hospital. Both, including 17-year-old Eliseo “Cheo” Sandoval Valverde, were pronounced dead.
News of the killing quickly spread through Cerritos and beyond as authorities worked the scene through the morning. Reports consistently placed the attack in the southwest/south side parking area of the sports complex and skate park within Don Knabe Community Regional Park, a place typically animated by late-night games and weekend gatherings. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said investigators recovered numerous shell casings—evidence of multiple rounds fired in rapid succession—before turning to security footage and community tips to piece together what happened in the darkness.
As Eliseo Sandoval Valverde, age 17, was being mourned, he was identified publicly and remembered by family and friends as “Cheo,” a teenager whose life ended far from the promise of school and home. Community posts and memorial pages marked the date and place—August 31, 2025, in Cerritos—while noting that a second victim, 21-year-old José Téllez, also died as a result of the gunfire. A grassroots fundraiser described Eliseo returning from a party with friends in the early hours before the shooting shattered the night.
Detectives have not announced any arrests. Early statements emphasized that the suspects fled in the immediate aftermath and remained at large, and authorities appealed for the public’s help to identify those responsible. As of the latest reports, investigators had not released a motive, and the case remained an active double-homicide investigation under the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau.
