Door Opened to Woman in Distress--an Auto Follows

At 2:44 a.m. Saturday in Huntington Beach, Lassiter Thompson II saw what his Good Samaritanism was about to cost him.

Thompson was working after-hours at a water bed store when he saw a man outside get into a compact car, back it to the edge of the parking lot, aim it at the front door and floor the accelerator.

At an estimated speed of 25 to 30 m.p.h., the car plunged through the narrow storefront and continued two-thirds of the way to the back door, scattering glass, water and splintered bed frames.

Thompson and another man, Alan Walker, who were standing at the front, leaped out of the way just in time, Thompson said.

The driver’s girlfriend, who police said had taken refuge in the store after the driver had beaten and threatened to kill her, locked herself in the store’s bathroom. Police said the man had kicked and punched a large hole in the bathroom door by the time they arrived.

They booked Francisco Cepeda Cruz, 29, of Garden Grove, a toy assembler, on suspicion of attempted murder and jailed him in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Officers said that neither Cruz nor his girlfriend, Fermna Cabrera, 27, of the same Garden Grove address, was serious injured. Thompson and Walker suffered small cuts from glass fragments, Thompson said.

Police said the incident started when Cruz went into a bar next to Terry’s Waterbeds at 18756 Beach Blvd. Cabrera, who wanted to go home, went into the bar after Cruz and a fight developed, officers said.

Thompson, the store manager, said he was assembling a water bed at the rear of the store when he heard the fight outside. “He grabs her and throws (her) against our front door, then grabs her by the hair and throws her onto the car,” he said.

Hands Were Full

He said he telephoned police, who assured him they would send officers as soon as they could. At the time, police said, their officers had their hands full with “Priority 1” calls--a large street fight and robbery downtown and a possibly serious traffic accident--and a number of lesser calls.

“It was an unusually busy night,” said Police Sgt. Luis Ochoa. Thompson’s call was ranked as a “domestic dispute,” a “Priority 2,” Ochoa said.

Police said their log shows that Thompson first called at 2:13 a.m. He called again at 2:36 a.m. to report that he had brought the woman into the store, locked the man out and the man had left.

But he called again at 2:42 a.m. to say that the man had returned and was banging on the door threatening to kill the woman. “I held the phone up to the window and said, ‘Hear this?’ ” Thompson said. “They said they had someone on the way.”

But then, Thompson said, he saw the man back his car to the edge of the parking lot, and he realized what was about to happen.

Jumped Out of the Way

“I yelled at the woman to get into the bathroom and lock the door, and my partner yelled at her, ‘Now!’ I grabbed my partner and we dove against the wall just as he came through.

“See that blood there?” he said, pointing to small spots on the white wall. “That’s me. If I hadn’t had my running shoes on, we’d have wound up under the car.”

Thompson said he and his partner confronted the man after he began kicking in the bathroom door. “We told him that if he touched her, we’d dust him off right then. He said, ‘Don’t touch me!’ and we said, ‘Fine, just stay right there. The police are on the way.’ ”

Thompson surveyed the rubble and said he hoped the store owner has insurance. “I’m out of a job,” he said. “The owner’s in Hawaii and won’t be back till Tuesday. Imagine the news I have for him.”