- Video shows Pastor David Vivas speaking about his son Adam Rene Guillen and his sudden death that occurred 4 years ago.
- Now Vivas is trying to still find answers on his son's murder and bring more awareness to the other unsolved cases in Delano.
Adam Rene Guillen would have turned 26 in February, but a fateful night, four years ago has made that impossible, and 1,460 days later, there are still no answers.
As each day passes, his father tells me they haven’t stopped seeking justice.
“Adam and four of his friends were near Hyatt Avenue and on County Line Road visiting a small memorial site where one of his friends had died in a car accident just a couple months prior,” said Father of Guillen David Vivas. “So they were there just visiting the memorial site just minding their own business when an unknown suspect or suspects pulled across the street and started to open fire.”
Vivas says he remembers the night of January 31st 2020 vividly — a heartbreaking memory that he hopes no other parent has to go through.
“As a pastor I’ve been through this with other families or walked with other families through this ordeal as they go through the same nightmare and now I find myself in that same journey and it’s shocking, you wake up wondering is it real,” said Vivas.
At the time, Vivas says police suspected gang violence to play a part in his son’s death, but Vivas says that was never the case when it came to his son or his friends.
“None of them were involved in any gangs so it was a mistake in identity,” said Vivas. “He was very courteous, especially with elderly people if he was with me he would be the one to go accommodate them if he saw they needed help.”
Police Commander for the Delano Police Department Cecilio Velasco says he worked on the case personally and although investigators have exhausted all leads — it doesn’t mean that they have stopped looking for answers on Guillen’s death and others.
“Since 2016 were had a total of 24 unsolved cases to this point, however, I’d like to share that we’ve solved 26 cases of homicide during that time,” said Commander Velasco.
Commander Velasco says that’s a solving rate of over 50% and in the past year, DPD had 5 homicide cases and were able to solve 4.
Vivas says the past 4 years have taught him not to blame investigators but to blame the people that caused his son harm.
Again wanting to urge the public that if you have potential information, you could be one phone call away from giving a family closure.
“There is a $10,000 reward for some of these cases but don’t do it just for the reward do it because it’s the right thing to do,” said Vivas. “Do it because a human life was taken and they did not deserve to die in that type of a manner.”
Anyone with information is urged to call the Delano Police Department’s Tip Line at (661) 721- 3369 or Kern Secret Witness at (661) 322-4040. For a full list of unsolved cases in Delano, click here.
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