Police See Link in Three Slayings : Killings in Area Known for Drug Traffic ‘Very Similar’

The apparently unprovoked murder of a 23-year-old Malibu man was described by police Friday as the third such slaying during the last three months in a one-block area west of downtown Los Angeles noted for high narcotics traffic.

Glen L. Keating, 23, of Malibu was shot to death by two men on Thursday afternoon while sitting in his parked car near Arapahoe and 12th streets, police said.

Witnesses described the killers as matching the descriptions of assailants who killed two other men in the same area during May and June, Los Angeles Police Homicide Detective Jim Bright said Friday.

‘Exact Same Time’

“The first two murders occurred on almost the exact same block at the exact same time of day,” Bright said. “This third one is very, very similar to the other two.”

Police described the neighborhood as an open marketplace for marijuana sales, with minors often hawking drugs from their bicycles and making as much as $200 a day.

Bright said he believed the recent killings may stem from strife in the area related to profits from drug sales. The neighborhood is in the Police Department’s Rampart Division, where about 50 murders, many of them drug-related, have been recorded this year, the detective said.

Victim an Ex-Marine

Keating, a former Marine who had attended Santa Monica College for three years, was working as a salesman at a Santa Monica lumber yard. He had no criminal record, Bright said.

About $200 was recovered from his body, leading investigators to rule out robbery as a motive. No narcotics were found.

Keating had told his mother earlier in the day that he planned to pick up his paycheck and attend a Dodger game on Thursday evening, Bright said.

Erik Jorgensborg, the lumber yard manager, said he hired Keating about 10 days ago. He described him as a big, strapping man with a short haircut, who seemed “like a nice, personable guy.”