SAN BERNARDINO >> San Bernardino police swarmed a Riverside apartment complex in search of a homicide suspect Wednesday, but did not find the man they were looking for.

“The hunt continues,” Lt. Mike Madden said about 6:40 p.m. Wednesday outside the Alvista Canyons apartments, in the 600 block of Central Avenue just east of Canyon Crest Drive.

PHOTOS: San Bernardino police investigate scene of domestic violence turned deadly

The man they’re looking for is Christian Jacinto, 39, who is suspected of killing a woman Wednesday morning in San Bernardino in what police described as an act of domestic violence.

The victim was identified as Sophia Darlene Vasquez Rubin, 31, of San Bernardino. She is believed to have been Jacinto’s girlfriend, and the motive for the shooting is related to a recent break-up, according to a news release

San Bernardino police, including a SWAT team, descended on the apartment complex about 3:30 p.m. after Riverside police found a car matching the description of a vehicle that left the scene of the homicide, said Officer Ryan Railsback, a Riverside police spokesman.

It was the right car, but when police entered the apartment they were targeting, they found it empty, Madden said.

Residents who had been cleared out of their apartments earlier in the afternoon were then allowed back in.

The investigation began about 11:30 a.m., when several 911 calls came in reporting a shooting in the 3600 block of North Mt. View Avenue, Madden said earlier Wednesday.

Jacinto and the victim may have been parked in a car in front of some homes. A tow-truck driver for Mountain Auto Works and Towing pulled to the side of the road to assist Rubin.

After police and paramedics arrived, Rubin was taken to Dignity Health-St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernardino, where she was pronounced dead.

The shooter fled in a white four-door car, either a Nissan or BMW, Madden said.

San Bernardino police asked Riverside police to help find the vehicle, Railsback said. That’s what drew authorities to the Alvista Canyons apartments.

Tiffany Barry, who lives in the apartment homes off Canyon Creek Drive – a private road off Central Avenue – said law enforcement “swarmed” the neighborhood.

Bernard Gibbs, who lives in the apartment building that the SWAT team focused on, said he was inside preparing to cook dinner when police knocked on his door and told him and his neighbors to leave.

“I was alarmed, I’m worried,” Gibbs said as the search was underway.

The road to the complex was closed, and police were checking vehicles as they left, including looking in their trunks.

About 5:15 p.m., police set off flashbang grenade that startled the dozens of bystanders who were watching the scene unfold. A flashbang is a non-lethal explosive that emits an intensely bright flash and loud bang designed to disorient those exposed to it.

By 6:40 p.m., police were allowing the apartment complex’s residents back in.

Staff Writer John M. Blodgett contributed to this report.