Eight days after 9-year-old Ezequiel Valdivia was shot by his father during what was later called a "domestic violence murder-suicide," the child has reportedly died. Ezequiel's 31-year-old father, Jose Valdivia, is believed to have opened fire in his Paradise Hills, California, home on November 16 — striking the 9-year-old as well as his three brothers and 29-year-old mother, Sabrina Rosario. Ezequiel had been the only family member to survive the attack until Saturday, when he succumbed to his injuries.
Doctors reportedly removed Ezequiel from life support around 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
The boy's uncle, Karl Albright, released a statement Sunday morning confirming his nephew's death. Albright explained that doctors told the family Ezequiel was brain dead and not responding to their tests, which what ultimately led to their decision to end life support measures, according to the statement obtained by CBS News.
"We had a lot of hope that Ezequiel would make it and then last night, we lost our hope," his great-aunt Joyce Rosario told the news station.
"He's going to be with his mom and his brothers, so we know he's at peace now," she said. "He's with his mom. It would have been hard life for him to not have his brothers because he was a very, very loving boy — very loving."
The shooting came after a year of estrangement between the couple.
Albright spoke to the San Diego Union-Tribune about his sister-in-law's marriage and admitted that the trouble seemed to begin about a year ago, when Jose cheated on Sabrina for a second time. The couple had been married for about 10 years, he shared, and Sabrina had worked hard not to let her children see the strain that infidelity had placed on the marriage. But ultimately, the couple separated in December 2018 and filed for divorce in June.
Police and court records show that just one day before her death, Sabrina had sought and obtained a restraining order against Jose.
The mother claimed that Jose was obsessed with the idea that she was dating someone new and would repeatedly call and show up at her home unannounced. He also would send her threatening text messages, including one text that was a photo of a handgun.
“This threat really scared me and I can no longer handle his abuse and harassment,” she wrote in the petition to get the restraining order. According to CBS 8, she also wrote that she felt unsafe.
"Because I am afraid that with respondent's unstable behavior and alcohol dependency, respondent will hurt me or our children," she wrote. "I do not feel safe around respondent or having our children in his presence.
“I do not believe our children are safe around [Valdivia] and it is not in the children’s best interest to be around this kind of domestic violence,” she continued.
Call and text logs attached to her case showed dozens of phone calls placed to Sabrina's phone from Jose between November 8 and 14.
"It is still unclear if the restraining order had been legally served, but we do believe the male was aware of it," SDPD Lt. Matt Dobbs told the news station.
Court documents state that Sabrina had threatened Jose with a restraining order before going through with the petition, to which he told her "a restraining order is not going to do nothing."
Police later said that they could hear arguing the morning of November 16, when a call was made to dispatchers.
Sabrina was living in an attached home with her kids, while relatives lived nearby in a main house on the property. A relative also called authorities to report that they heard arguing coming from the mother's home and what they thought sounded like a nail gun. When police arrived, there was no answer, and when they went to the door and peered through a window, a child could be seen lying on the floor and covered with blood.
After police entered the residence, they found six people wounded inside — including Ezequiel's three brothers, 11-year-old Zeth, 5-year-old Zuriel, and 3-year-old Enzi. HIs mother, father, and brother Enzi were all pronounced dead at the scene, and Zeth and Zuriel were taken to a hospital where they were later pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, Ezequiel clung to life and was taken into emergency surgery while being placed on life support.
Ezequiel's family held a vigil on Friday night to commemorate his life, as well as his mother's.
The family gathered at United Church of Christ in Paradise Hills and shared kind thoughts about Sabrina, calling her a “wonderful, charismatic, bright shining star," the San Diego Union Tribune reported.
A second community event was also held Saturday to help raise money for the family and to allow community members to speak out about domestic abuse, CBS 8 stated. In addition, Albright started a GoFundMe page to help raise money to cover funeral costs, and the page has already exceeded its goal.
"She was very private," Rosario said. "She didn't want people to know her business so she kept a lot of it inside."
Still, she was a woman who loved her four children more than anything in the world. "Her boys were her priority 100 percent, no question," Albright said.
