Woman beaten to death with electric scooter

LONG BEACH (KRON/CNN) — A person of interest is now in police custody in connection to the beating death of a woman in Long Beach. 

Witnesses say the man used an electric scooter as a weapon. 

Heartbroken friends and family members say 63-year-old Rosa Manjarrez had spent the morning visiting with friends just a few blocks from her Long Beach home. 

“She went to eat over there because they enjoy all the time, you know, they made food and they enjoy,” said Gabriel Luquin, a friend of Manjarrez.

After lunch, friends say she started making the three-block walk home when a man began attacking her just a few steps from her friend’s home. 

Police say the suspect then picked up a scooter that had been lying on the sidewalk and beat her to death. 

Friends say they know her attacker as someone who always hangs around the neighborhood and seems mentally unstable. 

“We saw him all the time around there. So my wife, she warned me about the guy few times and I was … okay, just try to avoid him,” said Luquin. 

Police say they took a person of interest into custody from a Circle K about a half mile from the murder scene within a few hours of the deadly attack. 

Meantime, the tragic news of Manjarrez’s passing swept through this neighborhood. 

“I just heard the news so it’s shocking. She was a nice woman. Everybody in the neighborhood knew her. She’s always walking and she does. She didn’t drive,” said neighbor Veronica Morales. 

Neighbors say she loved gardening, her husband, and her extended family, and was like family to many others in the neighborhood.