Family pleading for help finding shooter who killed father at Glendale apartment

GLENDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - A family is mourning after their father was shot and killed at a Glendale apartment complex Sunday night, and police are asking for the public’s help to find the person responsible.

Officers responded to reports around 10 p.m. of a gunshot and screaming at an apartment complex on 59th and Montebello avenues, just south of Bethany Home Road. Police found 55-year-old Reydesel “Ray” Parra near an apartment stairwell with a gunshot wound. Parra, the owner of Ray’s European Garage in Phoenix, was rushed to the hospital, where he died a short time later.

“I feel like we were robbed. It was senseless,” said Ray’s son, Jason Parra. Ray and his girlfriend of four years, Rita, left a family party to go back to her apartment with their grandchild. Ray went to the car for something and never made it back upstairs. “Within a half hour, my life was destroyed,” his girlfriend Rita said. “All I saw was him crawling up and said ‘help’, and I got him and put him against the wall and talked and talked to come through and stay with us.”

“He helped out so many people in the community that needed help with their vehicle and never held a grudge. Never pressed anyone for payment,” Parra said. Ray was a single father who raised three kids. They said he was their world. “You took everything from us. He was our glue, our dad, our only dad, only person that raised us,” Parra said.

They describe him as a selfless, genuine man. Tonight, they are left confused with so many questions no one has the answers for. “55 is so young. He did not need to go out in this horrible way,” Parra said. “We need to band together and come together as a community to find the person that did this and find justice for my dad.”

The family has set up a GoFundMe to help with expenses. If you would like to donate, click/tap here.

Detectives are investigating what led up to the shooting, and Glendale police are asking for the public’s help to find a suspect. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Glendale Police Dept. at (623) 930-3000 or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS or 480-TESTIGO.

Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.