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For years, the bright green turf of Whitsett Fields Park has served as a joyous hub for Los Angeles youth soccer — particularly for thousands of immigrant families in the San Fernando Valley.
On most weekends, the sprawling North Hollywood complex echoes with the shouts of hundreds of boys and girls, as vendors hawk aguas frescas, balloons and candy along the sidelines.
But recently, immense grief and worry have settled over this close, Latin American community.
Just last week, a well-known coach and Salvadoran national was charged with murder in the killing of 13-year-old soccer player Oscar Omar Hernandez during a lewd or attempted lewd act and then dumping the boy’s body in a roadside ditch in Ventura County. The coach, Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, who has not yet entered a plea, has also been charged with sexually assaulting another teen and investigators say there are probably more victims who have yet to come forward.
The teen’s slaying has left many in the youth soccer community profoundly shaken. Some say their faith in a long-trusted institution has been broken, and they question why the coach wasn’t scrutinized more carefully before he was allowed to work so closely with children.
“We have never seen anything of this magnitude,” said José Torres, president of the Proyecto 2000 Soccer League in the San Fernando Valley.
Charges that a youth soccer coach murdered a 13-year-old boy have sparked questions about earlier criminal investigations and the man’s immigration status.
The allegation comes at a time when many families are feeling increasingly vulnerable to anti-immigrant sentiment and threats of deportation by the Trump administration — a factor that could complicate the reporting of other possible crimes.
The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have insisted that immigration status will not be an issue for those who step forward to report alleged sexual assaults.
“We’re not going to ask about that,” Sheriff Robert Luna said.
But it wasn’t long after authorities charged 43-year-old Garcia Aquino with the crimes that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized on his immigration status.
“13 year-old Oscar ‘Omar’ Hernandez was an innocent child who was exploited and killed by this depraved illegal alien who should have never been in this country,” the DHS said on X. “Child predators, pedophiles and murderers will be hunted down and removed from America’s communities.”
On a recent Saturday, a flier with a photo of the victim hung from a Whitsett Fields lamppost as parents spoke to a Los Angeles Times reporter in hushed tones, so that their children would not overhear.
One mother, who declined to give her name, said she tells her children not to talk to strangers — but if the charges are true, what good is that if the person they have to fear is someone they know and trust?
Iris Rodriguez, who sells bacon-wrapped hot dogs at the park, said she had met Omar when he first arrived in California, and that she soon became close to his parents and siblings. His killing feels like a death in the family for so many immigrants in the North Hollywood community, Rodriguez said.
“Everyone that is a mother is horrified about what happened, because how could a person do that?”
A community devastated
During a memorial service at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in East Hollywood earlier that Saturday, mourners wore black T-shirts emblazoned with the boy’s photo, the words “Forever 13” and the letters LLO — Long Live Omar. Many recalled him as a quiet, thoughtful and trusting boy.
He and his mother arrived in Los Angeles from the small town of Marcala in Honduras three years ago while his father and the rest of his siblings had already established themselves in the Sun Valley neighborhood.
The boy’s older sister, Alejandra Hernandez, said she sometimes chided her brother for being so trusting, and told her brother that he didn’t always have to talk to people if they greeted him.
“He came from Honduras and we grew up there in the countryside, so we don’t have people like that there, people who are so bad, so crazy,” she said.
An avid soccer player who adored Real Madrid and Lionel Messi, Omar played for Huracan Valley Soccer Club, where he met his accused killer.
In the wake of Omar’s death, authorities and youth soccer officials have revealed a history of complaints and concerns involving Garcia Aquino, who two people said managed to avoid background checks and criminal charges.
The lapses have unsettled those who knew both the victim and the accused.
“We have to support one another at this time,” said Arcelia Martinez, family friend and parent of a student at Sun Valley Magnet School where Omar was a seventh-grader. She said there are no words to describe his death and how it has wounded immigrants from Central, South and North America.
“We’re all just the same people and only God can take away a life,” Martinez said Saturday.
Classmates described Omar as someone who wanted to support his family as soon as he could start working.
“He was like my brother because he usually told me that I was like his sister,” said his friend Magavi Davila, 12.
The students sobbed as Omar’s family carried his gray casket out of the church.
His mother, Gladys Hernandez, appeared to collapse within sight of the hearse. His siblings and father wailed together on the sidewalk as they said goodbye.
His older brother, Josué Hernandez, gripped Omar’s blue soccer jersey in his hands as the hearse pulled away.
‘There are a lot of people in fear’
Omar’s family last saw the boy boarding a Metrolink train to meet with Garcia Aquino at the coach’s home in Lancaster. He planned to help the older man make soccer jerseys, according to his family. When he did not come home, his family reported him missing on March 30.
When his brother tried to phone him later that day, the coach answered the boy’s cellphone and said Omar was busy and could not talk, according to police.
According to the family and investigators, Daniel Hernandez, the boy’s father, later called the coach and insisted he drop the teen off near the family’s home. Investigators used data from cellular devices, cellphone towers and other tracking systems to determine that the suspect visited the Oxnard area near McGrath State Beach and the Santa Clara River, according to law enforcement sources, who were not authorized to discuss the probe.
Omar’s parents have received an outpouring of support following his death, but they’ve also seen numerous videos criticizing them for letting their son travel alone, according to Omar’s sister.
“‘You just have to focus. You don’t know people, you don’t know how evil people can really be,’” Alejandra Hernandez said she told her mother. “I tell her, ‘We come from a village, maybe we are not the kind of people who see the wrong in people.’”
The family were unaware of prior complaints against Garcia Aquino and how he managed to skirt background checks as a traveling soccer coach playing with independent leagues, according to two other youth soccer officials. Independent leagues are seen as being more informal than those affiliated with the U.S. Soccer Federation, the primary governing body for American soccer.
Shortly after he was charged with Omar’s killing, prosecutors also charged Garcia Aquino with assault and performing a lewd act on a 14-year-old boy in December 2022 at his then-home in Sylmar.
Some officials who lead and coordinate soccer leagues say they had their suspicions about Garcia Aquino and that he refused to submit to background verifications.
“We can’t trust anyone,” said Marco Carballo, president of the Naciones Unidas Soccer League, who has spent more than 30 years working in local soccer, many of them at Whitsett Fields Park.
In three decades working in the San Fernando Valley, Carballo said he had never seen anything like Omar’s slaying.
“There are a lot of people in fear,” acknowledged Carballo, who said that Garcia Aquino’s team was not affiliated with Naciones Unidas.
“About eight years ago, he wanted to join my club, but he never wanted to submit to his fingerprints,” recalled Álvaro Chávez, director and president of the U.S. Soccer affiliated Spartans FC. After Garcia Aquino failed to submit to the requirements, Chávez barred him from his club.
Chávez believes that Garcia Aquino remained in independent leagues because he was unwilling to submit to the paperwork required by youth associations affiliated with U.S. Soccer.
According to Chávez, Garcia Aquino acted as a team sports director, but would direct a team coach to fill out the registration forms. Although Garcia Aquino’s name would not appear on the paperwork, he would still travel to competitions and coach from the sidelines.
The vast majority of independent leagues have their own rules and don’t follow the requirements of official associations, so they don’t have to subject their coaches or managers to a background check, Chavez said.
“The local leagues need to require fingerprints, the coach’s record,” he said.
Jorge Rodriguez, president of the California State Soccer League, said Garcia Aquino was affiliated with his league but had to be disaffiliated in 2022 because of an alert in its registration system.
The alert was triggered by an LAPD investigation into accusations of sexual assault on a minor, but the coach was not charged at the time because the alleged victim refused to testify against him, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
“I told him, ‘You can’t be with the boys, not even near, not from far, you have to stay away from them until you solve this problem,’” Rodriguez said. Garcia Aquino denied the allegations, and was never again involved in any tournaments organized by Rodriguez.
Torres, president of the Proyecto 2000 Soccer League, said he dealt with Garcia Aquino on several occasions. Although he always considered him an “ordinary and normal” person, he clarified that he was not affiliated with his competitions either.
Cal South Soccer, which is affiliated with U.S. Soccer, had once included Huracan Valley in its organization, but that arrangement appears to have ended several years ago. Cal South declined to answer questions from The Times about its oversight of Huracan Valley, but did release the following statement:
“Our deepest sympathies go out to his family, teammates, and friends during this incredibly difficult time. We take player safety very seriously and will support law enforcement in any way we can,” the statement said.
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