Neighbors ‘Glad’ Over Slaying of Robbers

The old man had been robbed before. Two times. Next time, he swore, he would be ready for the thieves. Knife-wielding thugs found out Friday that he was.

Two died, shot by his pistol. Two others ran away.

And Saturday, shy, diminutive Primitivo Nieves, 75, who lives in the 200 block of North Boylston Street, found himself a neighborhood hero. “It was amazing what he did at that age,” said Albert, a 23-year-old security guard at the Betty Plasencia Elementary School who did not want his last name used.

“I’m glad he did it,” declared Rebecca Sosa, 19, a next-door neighbor. “Everybody says that what he did was right,” said her mother, Concepcion.

The gunfire took place within sight of downtown Los Angeles in the impoverished but proud neighborhood sometimes called Temple-Beaudry, where mothers watch bands of children playing on the street and the men fix cars near the curb.

“There are good citizens here,” said Albert, but he warned: “This neighborhood is pretty rough on outsiders.”

Ten-year-old Joseph Sosa was outside about 8 p.m. Friday where four men not known in the neighborhood stationed themselves on a street corner and began drinking.

“I went into my house. I started to hear loud voices. Then I heard three shots,” he said.

Next door was the worn duplex of Nieves, a native of Ponce, Puerto Rico, who lives there with relatives.

Nieves said two men entered his front room, which he uses as a neighborhood candy store to supplement his Social Security checks. One asked for a soda; the other went around behind him.

Nieves said the thirsty robber grabbed him by the neck, pulled out a knife, waved it in his face, and screamed, “Don’t say nothing! Don’t cry!”

Nieves had a pistol in his back pocket and pulled it out.

“I shot him once,” Nieves said. Then he turned around. The man behind him took out a knife.

“But he had no time to open it,” Nieves said. “I shot him twice.” He pointed to dark stains on the rug where he said the man fell.

Somehow, the first robber managed to get Nieves’ gun, he said. He ran out the door, clutching it. Joseph Sosa saw him disappear running down Boylston Street, bleeding as he went. One of the two who had been waiting outside ran off and the other drove away in a car.

Police, who confirmed Nieves’ account, said there was little likelihood that Nieves would be charged. They said the man who was shot twice died at the scene and that a middle-aged man, who police have tentatively identified as the second robber, walked into the nearby Good Samaritan Hospital a few minutes later and died from a bullet wound.

The names of the two dead men have not been released pending notification of relatives. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said their ages were 32 and 47.

Sentiment Is Strong

The shooting electrified the neighborhood, keeping many outside on the street on an informal watch into the early hours of Saturday morning. Later in the day, sentiment had solidified into unanimous expressions of support for Nieves.

“People said they would do the same thing. I think he took the proper way of handling it,” said Albert.

Nieves, who said he used to work “in the fields,” is known as a quiet man who keeps to himself and sometimes lets children have candy from his store if they don’t have enough to pay for it, Albert said.

Nieves said he had no choice when the robber threatened him with a knife.

“If I didn’t shoot him,” he said, “maybe they would kill me.”