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By Bella Kim • Editor-in-Chief of the Los Alamitos High School Griffin Gazette
CERRITOS, Calif.: Saturday night, Jan. 18, a shooting occurred in the parking lot of the Los Cerritos Center mall, resulting in one death. The victim was TikToker Siyah, 17, who was found shot in the front seat of a car. She was then transported to a local hospital, where she died from critical injuries. Police detained four other young men who were passengers in the vehicle, according to an eyewitness, but the investigation closed Sunday morning with no outstanding suspect.
At 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, CBS News reported that Siyah, unidentified at the time, was found shot inside a car outside the mall, unconscious and not breathing. Siyah (@s1yahhh._) has 190.6K followers on TikTok, where she posts “spend the day/get ready with me” videos and TikToks of her dancing.
“She was always smiling (and) dancing on my fyp (For You page); rest in peace, baby,” one TikToker commented on Siyah’s final post. The comments section was filled with fans mourning Siyah’s death following the announcement.
Jeremy Paguia, a manager at Los Cerritos Chipotle, was working the night of the incident. He said he didn’t hear anything until he saw a “commotion” in the parking lot during his break and customers running out to a car.
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The shooting occurred around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday outside Cerritos Mall, resulting in Siyah’s death. Photo by Bella Kim.
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“There was a lady passed out and a full car of boys and one girl, all screaming,” Paguia said. “It was a girl (Siyah) unconscious in her front seat. No pulse. A nurse came by and started doing CPR for a good 10 minutes.”
Paguia said two helicopters, about 10 to 15 police cars, and two ambulances arrived on the scene. He closed the Chipotle three hours early, around 8 p.m., and the police kept people in the lot until about 9 p.m.
“Our whole side of the mall got closed by cops. No one was allowed to leave, so I kept everyone safe here,” Paguia said. “There were like 20 cars in the parking lot that couldn’t go home (until 9 p.m.).”
Shortly after the incident, the Cerritos Sheriff’s Station (@lasdcerritos) posted on Instagram, requesting that people avoid the area while deputies actively investigated the shooting. They confirmed that there was no active shooter at the time of their post.
The last shooting at Cerritos mall was in April 2024, and the victim, a man struck by gunfire, died at a hospital. Paguia, who has worked at Chipotle for over a year, said he generally feels safe when working. He added that Chipotle has procedures in place for an active shooter situation.
“We would shut down the store, turn off the lights and go to the back where it’s safest,” Paguia said.
Students from surrounding schools, including Los Alamitos High School, frequent Cerritos mall to shop and eat.
Tasha Johnson, an LAHS sophomore, visited the mall a couple of weeks ago. She told the Griffin Gazette that she hadn’t heard about the shooting on Saturday but knew about the last one in April.
“That’s probably the mall I go to most with my friends and mom. You don’t usually think that would happen, so you feel safe. At night, it’s a little more scary,” Johnson said.
On Sunday, the Cerritos Sheriff’s Instagram account updated on their story that the investigation concluded at 3 a.m.
“There are no outstanding suspects. The mall has fully resumed normal operations,” they posted.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department declined to release further information regarding this investigation.
Bella Kim works at Los Cerritos Chipotle but was not present the night of Jan. 18.
