‘He Was Worried About Burglars’ : Intruder Is Shot and Killed by Owner of Jewelry Store

It was Mother’s Day, but that didn’t stop Phil Moran from opening for business Sunday. As the maintenance worker turned jewelry store owner saw it, the holiday was a perfect time to sell a pendant or gold bracelet to desperate kids on their way to a celebratory brunch with Mom.

So, Moran unlocked the doors on his small, cluttered University Avenue shop in East San Diego and put several hand-painted signs blaring “Sale” on the sidewalk out front. Then, just after noon, the day went bad.

A “strange man” walked in and attacked Moran, he later told police. After a struggle that left the merchant bruised and bloody, Moran grabbed a handgun and pointed it at the intruder. His hands were shaking so badly, he said, that the weapon discharged. The apparent robber, identified as Carlos A. Ferran of San Diego, died soon afterward at Mercy Hospital of a gunshot wound to the chest.

As homicide detectives pieced together the fatal episode Sunday, Moran’s friends and relatives recalled the merchant’s concerns about security.

‘Worried About Burglars’

“This is a high crime area, and you never know when it’s going to happen to you,” said Moran’s fiancee, Wendy Curry. “He was worried about burglars. He had bars on the windows like the other store owners. He had an alarm system and everything.”

Moran also kept a .22-caliber automatic pistol on hand, said Jim Mattson, an employee at the store just west of 35th Avenue.

“There are weirdos up and down this street, and we were all concerned about it,” Mattson said. “The gun was there as sort of a ‘just in case’ kind of thing. Any jewelry store would want one.”

Moran, meanwhile, was taken to the downtown police station for questioning by detectives, who will attempt to ascertain whether the merchant did, indeed, fire in self-defense, Lt. Phil Jarvis said. Moran was released later in the day, a police spokesman said.

There were no witnesses to the crime because most of the other shops in the neighborhood were closed for the holiday. Based on Moran’s statements to police, Jarvis gave this account of the events Sunday:

Shortly after noon, a man who was “acting strange, like he was on narcotics” walked into the jewelry store and said he wanted to buy a gun and bullets. Moran, whose business is tucked unobtrusively next to a gun sales and repair shop, said he did not sell firearms.

Spotted Moran’s Gun

The victim spotted Moran’s gun on a table in the rear of the shop and asked whether it was for sale. Moran repeated that he had no guns for sale, which prompted the intruder to attack him.

“A struggle followed, during which Mr. Moran was knocked partway through the wall in the rear of the shop,” Jarvis said. “Then, (Moran) picked up a pellet gun and pointed it at the victim, who laughed and said, ‘That’s just a toy.’ ”

The merchant then grabbed his real gun and aimed at the intruder, who had threatened his life repeatedly. Moran said the weapon discharged accidentally because he “was shaking real bad,” Jarvis recounted.

Moran’s friends said the merchant opened the jewelry business with a partner about four months ago, after an injury forced him to give up a career as a maintenance man.

“It was really a dream for him, to own his own business,” Curry said. “But he has a lot of valuables--opals, gold and silver--around, so there was the risk of theft.”

Moran suffered facial wounds in the fight, including a split lip and scratches.

The San Diego County coroner’s office said Ferran, 31, who was unemployed, resided on Satellite Boulevard in South San Diego.