On August 23, 2025, 13-year-old Saith Toledo Mendez, a Hispanic/Latino male, was waiting for his mother near the service window of the 76 gas station in the 8800 block of Whittier Boulevard in Pico Rivera when a tan four-door sedan pulled up shortly before midnight. According to investigators, the driver walked to the window to speak with Saith Toledo Mendez’s mother while a passenger—later identified by authorities as 20-year-old Andres Adan Chavez—got out and lingered near the pumps.
As Saith Toledo Mendez stepped outside and passed the man, detectives say the encounter remained wordless until, without provocation, the gunman moved toward the 13-year-old and shot him in the back at close range, then stood over him and fired multiple rounds before running into a nearby neighborhood. First responders pronounced Saith Toledo Mendez dead at the scene; the driver and a female passenger stayed and were questioned by deputies. The attack came two days after an unrelated fatal shooting at another Pico Rivera gas station, compounding the community’s shock.
In the days that followed, the story spread beyond Pico Rivera as relatives and neighbors remembered 13-year-old Saith Toledo Mendez as a shy, curious kid who looked out for his mother, accompanying her on overnight shifts after his father’s recent death. He had been sitting in the family car that night, then went inside to see her before walking back out—those ordinary movements becoming the final minutes of a life cut short. The detail that there was no robbery, no argument, only a sudden and devastating burst of violence, deepened the sense of senselessness across the city.
Detectives quickly named a suspect and asked for the public’s help. On August 28, 2025, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna identified Andres Adan Chavez as the person they believed responsible and warned he should be considered armed and dangerous. Within hours, on the evening of August 29, deputies stopped a vehicle in the 9500 block of Whittier Boulevard and arrested Chavez on suspicion of murder; he was booked at the Pico Rivera Sheriff’s Station with bail set at $2 million. Prosecutors subsequently charged him with murder and special allegations tied to the personal and intentional use of a firearm. Authorities said the case would be presented at the Downey Courthouse, while the driver and female passenger who remained at the scene were released pending further investigation.
