MESA, AZ — Tributes are pouring in for a slain Mesa business owner as police try to find the person responsible.
A memorial is growing outside of Lamb’s Shoe Repair in downtown Mesa where 58-year-old Jesus De La Rosa was found dead inside.
Mesa Police have not yet released how De La Rosa died, nor did they say whether or not his business was robbed.
Frequent customers, friends and neighboring business owners say De La Rosa, who went by Fabian, was a generous, quiet, and nice man.
“He was the kind of guy, he’d give you anything. He’s not the kind of guy you had to kill to get something,” said John Schwary, a neighboring business owner.
De La Rosa’s love of shoe repairing inspired Isaac Martinez and Nathanael Guymalibashka.
The two tell ABC15 De La Rosa mentored them when no one else would. They opened their own shoe repair shop just miles away from De La Rosa’s store.
“He saw it as a project and he taught us to feel that way,” Guymalibashka said of De La Rosa and his love for the craft.
“He’d always call us the boys because he had daughters. I thought it was kind of like codeword, saying we were his boys,” Martinez added. “For us, it just meant everything. Just being told that even if we didn’t have our family, someone still recognized us as their boys.”
Now, the two are left without their mentor. The shop remains closed as police continue to investigate.
Schwary says he’s offering a $1,000 reward that will lead to finding and convicting the person who murdered De La Rosa.
“I want to see whoever did this punished,” he said.
Mesa Police are asking for customers who visited the store on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. to reach out to them. They believe those customers may have information that could help find the person responsible. They can call the non-emergency number 480-644-2211.
