{"id":790105,"date":"2026-05-12T02:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T02:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/790105\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T02:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T02:39:19","slug":"father-celebrating-birthday-killed-in-los-angeles-pizza-shop-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/790105\/","title":{"rendered":"Father celebrating birthday killed in Los Angeles pizza shop shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

WILMINGTON, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A father celebrating his 26th birthday was killed in a shooting<\/a> after he tried to break up a fight between two women at a popular pizza shop in Wilmington.<\/p>\n

Andres Castellas was celebrating at Red West Pizza in Wilmington Saturday afternoon. He was surrounded by family and friends before the happy celebration quickly took a violent turn.<\/p>\n

Police and family say Castellas was trying to deescalate a fight between two women before he was shot by a man who fled on foot. Castellas died at the scene.<\/p>\n

“They robbed us of someone,” Maria Rondan, Castellas’ girlfriend, told Eyewitness News. “They took somebody’s father, son and I just don’t understand why.”<\/p>\n

Rondan’s daughter Michelle Costa described Castellas as a peaceful person who didn’t like violence. Loved ones say he moved from Colombia about three years ago to provide for his 5-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

“He was a very happy guy,” Rondan said. “He was the type of a guy that he’ll walk in the room and make you feel special even when you didn’t think that about yourself.”<\/p>\n

Castellas’ family and friends want to honor his memory.<\/p>\n

“We want him to know that we’re here for him,” Costa said. “We’re always going to be here for him. We’re always going to celebrate him.”<\/p>\n

A restaurant employee, a man in his 20s, was also shot. He was taken to a hospital with injuries not life-threatening.<\/p>\n

Police say the shooting suspect remains at large.<\/p>\n

Castellas’ friends and family have set up a GoFundMe campaign<\/a> to help with funeral arrangements.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WILMINGTON, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A father celebrating his 26th birthday was killed in a shooting after he…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":790106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[322751,1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-790105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-322751","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116559293083956405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}