A relative of slain teenager Mina Kurdian said the 15-year-old was “embarrassed” to reveal her ex-boyfriend’s true age.
Paul Anthony Cruz Jr., 20, allegedly gunned down Kurdian at her Arcadia, California home last Thursday after a predawn confrontation, and the disclosure that he was an adult — not 17 as family believed — has intensified their anguish. The relative, speaking to the California Post, said Cruz was “never presented to any of the family members,” and that knowledge of his real age would have changed everything.
“I think she was embarrassed to say he was 20. If I knew he was, it would be a whole different situation,” the relative said.
Kurdian’s grandfather, Nick Eftekhari, told The Post the couple’s on-again, off-again relationship of about one year had ended several weeks before the killing. Cruz wanted to reconcile, Eftekhari said, and grew increasingly upset when Kurdian refused.
The terror began around 5 a.m. Thursday when Cruz arrived at Kurdian’s home intoxicated and belligerent, carrying a bottle of Hennessy. Family members said he appeared to have stayed up all night. Kurdian texted relatives about the frightening encounter, telling them she had kicked him out after they fought.
“[He] was just a drunk coming there and thinking that it’s okay for him to show up whenever he wants,” a relative said. Cruz felt emboldened to confront Kurdian, the relative added, because only her mother and sister were present in the apartment at that time.
After Cruz departed, Kurdian made plans to visit a relative’s house. Her final text message, sent around 8:53 a.m. To a family member, said she was going to shower and get ready.
Cruz returned approximately two hours later. Family said he first tried and failed to break through a glass door, then shot through a window to gain entry. Once inside, he shot Kurdian in the head. Police pronounced her dead at the scene.
Cruz fled and was later discovered in a Petco parking lot in Pasadena with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. As of Friday morning, he remained hospitalized in critical condition.
“She was just a kid,” a second family member told The Post.
Kurdian largely kept the relationship hidden from relatives during its year-long course, her family said. The teenager had dreams of becoming a cosmetologist, loved theme parks, and cherished time with her family. They remembered her as “funny, happy and adventurous.”
The relative who spoke about Kurdian’s embarrassment over Cruz’s age also emphasized the family’s conviction that proper introduction and transparency might have altered the trajectory of events. The secrecy surrounding the relationship, combined with Cruz’s misrepresented age, left Kurdian without the protective intervention her relatives now wish they had provided.
Kurdian’s family is hoping Cruz survives his injuries to face legal proceedings for the alleged murder. An investigation by Arcadia police remains ongoing.