Gunman Opens Fire on Denny’s Patrons; 3 Dead

Two men were shot to death and a couple were injured Wednesday when a 60-year-old man burst into a Denny’s restaurant -- a gun in each hand -- and fired at lunchtime customers before killing himself.

Police got a 911 call from a “frantic” patron in the restaurant off the 101 Freeway on Five Cities Drive just after noon, Pismo Beach Police Chief Joe Cortez said. The first officer arrived within two minutes and found customers fleeing, he said.

“It was pretty chaotic,” said Pismo Police Cmdr. Jeff Norton.

The officers entered to find two men dead on the floor and one dead in a booth, all within about seven paces of the entrance, Cortez said.

Authorities said Frank Velasquez, 65, of Oceano and Harold Hatley, 73, of Grover Beach were shot to death.

The injured man and woman, a married couple, were not named. They were shot in the lower body and treated at Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, where they were in good condition, Cortez said.

Police identified the shooter as Lawrence Edward Woods, 60, a transient who had been living out of his car along the Central Coast for some time. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Woods’ last known address was in San Luis Obispo, Cortez said. Woods had a criminal record, he said, but he declined to be more specific.

Police later recovered Woods’ car, a 1980s-vintage Plymouth Alliance, from the restaurant parking lot.

Police said Woods had entered the Denny’s with a semiautomatic handgun in one hand and a revolver in the other and immediately started firing both weapons.

Witnesses gave officers conflicting reports about whether Woods spoke as he fired, but all agreed that he revealed little of his motives, Cortez said.

Paul Woodward, 46, of Paso Robles said Velasquez was his stepfather. His mother -- Velasquez’s wife, Lavina -- told him that she was with her husband and their great-granddaughter Alexis Woodward, 5, when Woods walked in.

Woodward said his mother gave him this account:

The gunman walked over to their table, aimed low, and shot Velasquez in the left thigh. Then he said to her: “Do you want to know why this is happening?”

When she said yes, he told her: “It’s all Mid-State Bank’s fault.” Then he raised the gun to his head and shot himself, Woodward said.

The bullet fired at Velasquez punctured a major artery in his leg and he bled to death, Woodward said.

Cortez said Woods may have been prompted by an “economic motive” but gave no further details.

He said police have no evidence that Woods was connected to the restaurant, its employees or any of its customers. The act had the marks of “a random act of violence,” Cortez said.

Norton said the events unfolded quickly. “It was over in a matter of seconds,” he said. A security camera captured the entire episode on videotape.

Pismo Beach is a cliff-side beach town of 8,600 people, north of Santa Barbara and south of San Luis Obispo. It is a close-knit, quiet community with virtually no crime, said Mayor Mary Ann Reiss.

“This is very shocking,” she said. “We just do not have incidents of this nature -- ever, ever.... The city manager called me about 12:45 p.m., and I couldn’t even believe it.”

A small crowd surrounded the restaurant as police investigated the scene late into the afternoon Wednesday. A bullet hole the size of a silver dollar was visible in a side window.

Cody Ferraro, 19, of Arroyo Grande was driving past as the shooting occurred. He said he could hear the shots from his car -- “quite a few of them” -- and pulled over to see people pouring out of the restaurant.

“They were saying, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ ” he said.

*

Times staff photographer Stephen Osmond and staff writer Jill Leovy contributed to this report.