Had Planned to Retire in October : Guard Killed in Hospital Office Building

Edward LeDuc enjoyed life as a night watchman. He liked the peace and quiet, relatives said, and wasn’t afraid of the potential danger. In his 23 years as a security guard, he had never had a violent encounter. Having turned 65, LeDuc had planned to retire Oct. 1.

Wednesday morning, police found LeDuc beaten to death in the Sharp Hospitals Foundation, the administrative offices for Sharp Memorial Hospital in Kearny Mesa. Homicide detectives believe LeDuc was walking his rounds unarmed sometime before 4:30 a.m. when he surprised a burglar, San Diego Police Lt. Phil Jarvis said.

An “antique” shotgun--with which the assailant repeatedly struck LeDuc--was found lying next to the man’s body in a first-floor hallway, Jarvis said. Although police originally believed LeDuc had been shot with the weapon, Jarvis said it is not clear whether the weapon was even capable of firing.

“It was pretty well beaten up by the time we saw it,” he said.

The burglar apparently was after office supplies, Jarvis said. Police found typewriters and word processors stacked near a rear door, he said. It is not known whether anything was actually stolen.

“It’ll be sometime before we determine if there was anything missing,” he said. “It’s the administrative building for the hospital, so there’s a lot of expensive office equipment in there.”

LeDuc took his first job as a night watchman after he retired from the Navy in 1958, and he spent the next 18 years patroling at Convair in Kearny Mesa, the North Island Naval Air Station and the San Diego Zoo, said his niece, Virginia McAdams.

But in 1976, LeDuc gave up security work to open the Diane Card and Gift Shop on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, McAdams said. He ran the store for five years, but eventually tired of the grind of running a business.

“He just decided it wasn’t his thing,” McAdams said. “His wife was working full time at Sharp and he just couldn’t handle it all.”

The job at Sharp gave LeDuc more time to see his wife, Helen, a nurse. It was similar to his other security positions, except he could not carry a gun at the hospital, McAdams said.

“At a hospital, having a visible gun is just not appropriate,” said Edwin Crawford, public relations director for Sharp Hospitals Foundation. “They’re not police, they’re night watchmen. Their job is to check doors at night, not enforcement.”

Upon noticing anything suspicious, the guards are supposed to radio for assistance immediately, Crawford said. The fact that LeDuc made no attempt to signal for help has led police to believe that he surprised the burglar or burglars.