D.A. Probing Halloween Death of Universal Worker

The young Universal Studios employee who was killed Friday night by a tour tram during a special “Halloween Horror Night” show had been assigned to jump out and scare passengers on the tram when he was run over and dragged to his death, sheriff’s officials said.

The victim, identified Saturday as Paul Rebalde, 20, of Woodland Hills was stationed on a parked tram filled with mannequins that were dressed to look like corpses, according to sheriff’s spokesman Merlyn Poppleton.

Rebalde, who was also in costume, was to leap from among the mannequins on the parked tram and frighten people passing on moving trams, according to Poppleton. Somehow Rebalde became trapped between the third and fourth sections of one of the four-section trams, and was “run over and dragged for approximately 100 feet,” Poppleton said. He was pronounced dead at the scene about 9 p.m.

Poppleton said he did not “know how he got trapped between the sections.”

Investigators from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s environmental crimes/occupational safety division were on the scene Saturday. John F. Lynch, who heads the unit, declined to comment on the case except to say that there were “interviews taken of some people that may have been eyewitnesses, but until we take a look at those, we don’t know what we have.”

According to Joan Bullard, publicity director for Universal Studios, “There was no indication that the tram had a problem or anything like that. The sheriff has told us that it was an unfortunate accident.”

No changes were made in the Halloween show, said Bullard, who added that safety procedures Saturday night “would be heightened even more.” The event was the first such show held after dark at Universal.

Universal Studios employees described Rebalde as a thin, rusty-haired youth who was quick with a smile. They said he had worked in the theme park at several jobs.

“He was one of the sweetest kids that worked up here,” one fellow employee said. “He was the kind of guy that always walked around with a smile on his face. Everybody liked him.”

Bullard said the tour’s safety record is “exemplary” and that “we have never had an incident like this in our 22-year history.” “We’re all very sad,” she said.

Elsewhere in the Los Angeles area, Halloween revelry was marred by the shooting death of a Los Angeles man by costumed robbers. Police also reported that contaminated candy was found in several trick-or-treat bags and that a local cemetery was vandalized.

The shooting death occurred when a Newton area family opened their front door to what they thought were trick-or-treaters. Two armed men dressed in costumes shoved their way into the house, police said.

During the robbery, Telesford Garcia, 26, was shot and killed. The robbers fled on foot.

A 1 1/2-inch sewing needle was found stuck in a candy bar brought home by two children who were trick-or-treating in San Pedro.