Shop Manager Says Shooting of Youth Was Unintentional

The man who shot and killed 15-year-old David Gallardo as he and another youth allegedly fled from an attempted theft at a Costa Mesa auto shop did not fire intentionally, the shop manager said Saturday.

The manager, Russ Williams, said he did not witness the shooting but said the man, whom he described as a friend, had recounted the confrontation to him hours after the shooting early Wednesday morning.

“He told me the kid driving the car threw up his hands and my friend ducked. The kid hit the gas . . . the (car window) post struck the gun and the gun went off. He told me he didn’t intentionally fire the gun,” Williams said.

Police said they have found only two witnesses to the shooting--the unidentified man who wielded the shotgun and Gallardo’s companion, Thomas Ramirez, 16, who was arrested and charged with attempted theft.

Officers said the boys were removing lug nuts from the wheel of a Porsche that was parked outside the shop.

Police have not arrested the man who fired the fatal shot and have refused to identify him. Investigators said they are confident he will not flee while the investigation continues.

Ramirez’s family said the boy told them the shot was fired at close range, about four feet away from the car, after the man ran to the driver’s side. The man gave no warning that he was about to fire, Ramirez’s family said.

“I think this was cold-blooded murder over hubcaps,” said Gilbert Ramirez, the boy’s father.

“I’ve read in the paper that this was all over some hubcaps,” Williams said Saturday. “These were Porsche alloys (wheels). They come on (Porsche model) 911s. They were fully polished, too. They are $2,400, at least, for a full set. They are a hot thing to put on Volkswagens for teen-agers.”

Shop Burglarized in Past

He said his shop has been burglarized “seven or eight times,” the last time about two months ago. A loss of $2,400 “can hurt us. We aren’t IBM.”

Williams said his friend is 30, married and has three children. He said the man spent eight years in the Marine Corps and received two medals for saving lives.

Williams said his friend is not on the payroll of Holtz VW Repair, the shop on West 20th Street where the shooting occurred, but the man lived there until the night of the shooting. “I can’t get into why he was staying here. I hope you understand, but right now I can’t,” Williams said.

He refused to say whether the man lived in or near the shop, or if he was acting as a guard.

Williams said the man had confronted burglars at the shop two months ago and was beaten. He said his friend also rescued a girl being raped on West 20th Street about 1 1/2 years ago.

On Wednesday, Williams said, his friend discovered a Volkswagen backed into the driveway of the antique store beside the auto shop, and saw two figures in a fenced-off area where some of the shop’s cars are parked.

“He sees both people kneeling down at the wheels (of the Porsche) with wrenches. . . . He surprised them. They were over at the Porsche. He’s got a shotgun,” Williams said.

It was foggy and his friend could not distinguish the figures, he said.

Williams said they ran to their car. “He’s in front of (the boys’) car. He’s banging it (the shotgun) on the windshield of the car. He’s shouting, ‘Stop! Freeze!’

“They started to move. He runs out of the way, goes to the side of the car. Now he’s next to the car. He’s banging the shotgun” on the car door just below the driver’s window.

“He’s trying to tell them to stop. I saw the marks on the car where he’d been banging,” said Williams, who said he arrived at the shop five minutes after the shooting.

“The driver put his hands up in the air. The window was rolled up. It was misted, and he (Williams’ friend) can’t see. The car’s moving, and you can’t really tell they’re kids.

“When the hands went up, he ducked, jumped backward and at the same time the kid hit the gas. The car was moving forward already, accelerating out of the driveway.

“The post struck the shotgun, and the gun went off. He told me he didn’t intentionally fire the gun. The car continued across the street and hit another car.”

Williams said his friend is “not the kind of guy who’d go out and take a kid’s life.”

“(He’s) more than a little bit traumatized. It’s not something you do every day. It was definitely an accident. He’s pretty shaken up.

“We’ve been getting threatening phone calls at the shop,” Williams said. “Mostly that they’re going to get us, calling us murderers, threatening us.” He said the calls seem to be coming from both youths and adults.

Police said they found no weapons on the boys or in the car, which was registered to Gallardo’s family. They said they found three lug nuts in the car from the wheel of the Porsche.

Williams confirmed that Gallardo had been hired to work at the shop where he was killed.

“I myself had talked to him (Gallardo). I’d hired him to work nights and weekends. I was going to teach him the ropes--how to work on VWs,” he said.

A rosary will be read for Gallardo at 6:45 p.m. today in the Harbor Lawn Memorial Chapel in Costa Mesa. A funeral Mass will be held at noon Monday at St. John the Baptist Church in Costa Mesa, and burial will be at Harbor Lawn Memorial Park.