Lone Survivor Recovering From Wounds : Police Press Investigation into Triple Slaying

Detectives were seeking clues Saturday in the execution-style slayings of three men whose bound bodies--each with a gunshot wound to the head--were found in an auto repair shop in Southeast San Diego.

A fourth man, Pedro Castillo Jr., 39, survived the attack and was listed in fair condition at Mercy Hospital with a gunshot wound in the abdomen and two stab wounds in the buttocks, said a hospital spokesman.

Castillo was found about 8:45 p.m. Friday lying in the street outside the A&Z; Auto Repair shop in the 900 block of 43rd Street by two police officers who were on patrol, said Lt. Paul Ybarrondo. Castillo’s hands had been tied behind his back.

The officers entered the shop and found the dead men in a small office after Castillo, an employee of the shop, asked the officers “to check on his friends,” Ybarrondo said.

The three dead men were identified by the coroner’s office as Jose Luis Rositas, 24; Marco Antonio Zamora, 31, and Ernesto Mendez Dominguez, 30, all of San Diego.

Although police had yet to establish a motive, Police Department spokesman Bill Robinson said the repair shop is situated in “an area where there has been violent activity and narcotics trafficking in the past.”

Witnesses told officers that three Latino men fled the area in a car shortly after shots were heard, but no suspects have been arrested, Robinson said.