Man Killed in Phone Booth as Wife Looks On

A Tustin man who stopped to use a pay telephone late at night in South-Central Los Angeles was shot to death in front of his wife during a holdup by three young men, police said Friday.

Detectives said David and Namora Thompson apparently had been on an outing with a church group and drove into a gas station at Slauson Avenue and Broadway just before midnight Thursday, reportedly to telephone for help because a church bus had broken down nearby.

When Thompson, 30, got out of his car, according to Lt. Stella Mattson of Newton Division, three armed suspects in their late teens appeared. One of them robbed Thompson of an undetermined amount of money while the others confronted the wife in the car and took $10 from her purse.

Then, detectives said, even though Thompson appeared to be cooperating, one of the young gunmen shot him once in the head with a small-caliber pistol.

As he collapsed on the sidewalk, the three suspects pushed his horrified wife out of the car and sped away in it. They were last seen going south on Broadway. The car is a gray 1986 Hyundai.

Namora Thompson was not hurt, but she was reportedly too distraught Friday afternoon to be interviewed by detectives.

In Tustin, Nancy Dunning, manager of the apartment house where the Thompsons had been living since 1984, said they have a 3-year-old son and an infant.

Meanwhile, employees at California First Bank in Santa Ana, where Namora Thompson works, set up a hardship fund for her and her children. Diana Martin said contributions can be sent to the Thompson Family Fund at the bank, P.O. Box 839, Santa Ana, 91720.