by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN APRIL 10, 2024, 11:14 AM (MissionLocal.org)
On Friday, 23-year-old Alberto Vargas Quero had been in San Francisco for two days, and it was his first day on the job at Modern Hair Cuts on Mission Street. He hadn’t eaten all day and was waiting for his lunch break when he stepped outside for some air.
Minutes later, Vargas Quero was gunned down and killed in broad daylight.
His friends and family, mostly Venezuelans living in Colombia, remember him as a quiet, polite, family-oriented person. After making his way to Colombia as a teenager, Vargas Quero last year made a grueling journey to the United States in search of better opportunities. He hoped to make enough money to buy his mother a house.
And he had just finally achieved the first step in his dream of eventually opening his own barbershop.
“I told him papi, come back, but [he’d say] ‘No mom, I’m going to help you,’” said his mother, Anmelys Coromoto Quero Rojas, breaking into sobs on the phone on a call from Bogotá. “He was my only son, ma’am, he was my support, he was the only one who helped me.”
Whenever he could, Vargas Quero would send money to his mother, his ailing grandmother, and his pregnant sister — all now living in Bogotá. His sister remembered an instance before he left Colombia when Vargas Quero had only some $25 that he’d recently earned.
“He bought my grandmother a cake,” said his sister, Luisana de los Angeles Vicuña Quero. “And he hadn’t eaten anything all day. He preferred to buy the cake for my grandmother and celebrate her birthday.”
Luisana called her brother “a kid in a man’s body.” Videos show him singing soulful ballads, or sending silly videos to his family using filters to enlarge his lips and alter his voice. His family and friends remember him loving music and soccer but said that his priority was always helping those around him.
It is still unclear what prompted the shooting — surveillance video footage shows the shooter standing near a white car outside the barbershop and another man standing near the doorway. As Vargas Quero appears to turn back into the shop, the killer suddenly lunges at him.
An eyewitness earlier told Mission Local that the shooter was in the white car when he fired the shots before driving off. The witness said that the shooter had been lingering in the streets for a while and “eyeing [Vargas Quero] from inside the car.”
Though Vargas Quero did not have an easy life, he had an easy way about him, and his family remembered him as an unproblematic, humble person.
His best friend, Nazareth, said they met in 2017 on the trek from Venezuela to Colombia, where both were headed to seek better lives and opportunities.
Vargas Quero was 17, and Nazareth was 16.
“The truth is, it was very complicated,” said Nazareth. “We were just children, and it was difficult because we were just beginning to get to know the outside world.”
Eventually, the pair worked together in construction in Colombia. When Nazareth later made his way to Arkansas, Vargas Quero joined him. It was his first stop in the United States.
His journey to this country was a difficult one as well; Vargas Quero’s mother and sister said he had no phone or money, and had to work odd jobs like selling ice cream while relying on the generosity of others to make his way through Central America to cross the border.
More than two months after leaving his family in Bogotá in July, he arrived in the United States in September 2023, Luisana said.
Vargas Quero made his way to Arkansas to meet Nazareth, but after working some six months in a carwash — where Nazareth says the boss underpaid and overworked undocumented workers — Vargas Quero decided he’d had enough. He set off to meet another friend in San Francisco.
And last week he finally arrived, and by Friday he started his job at Modern Hair Cuts.
“He sent me a photo with his friend — he was there, and he was happy,” said Vargas Quero’s father, Yordis Vargas Querales, who spoke with his son the same day of the shooting. “I said ‘God bless you,’ and he said ‘Amen.’ He sent that word, ‘amen.’”
Vargas Quero, as always, was in touch with much of his family — his sister said he had sent her a “bendición a la barriga,” or a belly blessing, that day, and his mother had spoken with him as well.
Now, Vargas Quero’s family is trying to navigate the bureaucratic system to bring Vargas Quero home, and get answers about his killing.
The suspect, Alexander Martinez, 30, was arrested on Saturday in Richmond. He will be arraigned in San Francisco court this afternoon.
Alberto Rafael Vargas Quero is survived by his mother, Anmelys Coromoto Quero Rojas, his father Yordis Ramon Vargas Querales, his sister Luisana de los Angeles Vicuña Quero, and his grandmother Margeris Margarita de Quero Rojas.
All interviews were conducted in and translated from Spanish.
Update: Alexander Martinez’s arraignment today was delayed to April 17. He remains in custody.
ELENI BALAKRISHNAN
REPORTER. Eleni reports on policing in San Francisco. She first moved to the city on a whim more than 10 years ago, and the Mission has become her home. Follow her on Twitter @miss_elenius.More by Eleni Balakrishnan
