{"id":229385,"date":"2026-03-21T00:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229385\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T00:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T00:55:08","slug":"feels-like-a-nightmare-young-girl-mourns-father-killed-in-southwest-fresno-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229385\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Feels like a nightmare,&#8221; Young girl mourns father killed in southwest Fresno shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) &#8212; &#8220;Feels like a dream, or like a nightmare, like I want him to call me and tell me he&#8217;s just joking,&#8221; said the heartbroken daughter of 38-year-old Perry Paul Espinosa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Espinosa&#8217;s family gathered outside a Southwest Fresno Home Friday afternoon, remembering a man who meant so much to so many.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fresno Police say Espinosa was shot around 10 p.m. Thursday while visiting family on Samson Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">His wife, Cortazya McClendon, told Action News their family lives in Texas, and Espinosa was visiting family in Fresno to discuss plans to renovate his grandmother&#8217;s home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">She flew to California overnight when she heard the tragic news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;He was my everything,&#8221; McClendon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">McClendon asked that we not show her on camera, but provided us with pictures of her family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Espinosa can be seen standing proudly with his wife and children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He was a father of four, but his family called him a mentor to many others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Espinosa ran his own trucking business back in Texas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">His oldest son, Paul Jr., now hopes to carry his father&#8217;s strength with him in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;He taught me about being a man, how to work hard, and just don&#8217;t quit and don&#8217;t give up, and don&#8217;t be lazy. And provide for my family,&#8221; the young man said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">More than 20 people gathered outside the home to support the four children now left without a father.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">They spoke of him highly, as a family man who dedicated his life to helping others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Probably made him tired or whatever, he still did what he had to do to provide and take care of his family. He was a loving man, a loving father, I know everybody miss him. We all miss him,&#8221; said one of the victim&#8217;s cousins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">As Fresno Police begin their search for Espinosa&#8217;s killer, his wife with this message:<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;You robbed us. And you&#8217;ll have your day, and I hope you get it soon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">This is Fresno&#8217;s second homicide in the past week with no arrests made in either case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fresno Police are expected to provide an update early next week.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) &#8212; &#8220;Feels like a dream, or like a nightmare, like I want him to call&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[104197,104196,104198,112,114,113,294],"class_list":["post-229385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-daughter-mourns-father-shot-and-killed-in-fresno","tag-like-a-nightmare","tag-104198","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-timely"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}