‘We’re Going to Kill You’: Brother of Victim Saw Threat Carried Out

Alex Sarabia stood in the living room of his parents’ Garden Grove home Tuesday, trying to make sense of the chain of events that had led to the death of his brother, Javier.

He could think of nothing, he said, that he or his brother had done to provoke the attack late Sunday night, when three men threatened Javier with a gun and then ran their car over him three times.

The nightmare began as the 21-year-old Alex and his brother were riding Alex’s motorcycle along West Street in Garden Grove on their way back from a barbecue at the Whittier home of their older brother, Hector Jr. A white Ford Escort traveling in the opposite direction made a U-turn and started following them, Alex recalled Tuesday.

The car was tailgating them so closely that they had to bypass their driveway, he said. Trying to elude the car, Alex made a right turn onto Orangewood Avenue and then took another right down Morgan Lane.

“I didn’t think they were going to stop, so I stopped on Morgan and waited for them to pass by,” he said.

Pistol Drawn

But the car didn’t pass by, he said. Instead, it pulled alongside of them and the occupants shouted, “We’re going to kill you” several times, Alex said. And when Javier Sarabia walked up to the car to ask what they wanted, one of the men drew a pistol, his brother said.

Alex said his 26-year-old brother tried to wrestle the gun out of the man’s hand and there was a struggle. Javier Sarabia fell to the ground and struck his head, and Alex said he saw the car run over him. Alex said the car then made two U-turns and ran over his brother two more times.

Javier Sarabia suffered massive head injuries and was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 11:40 p.m. Sunday, according to Garden Grove Police Sgt. Phil Mason.

The attack appeared to be completely at random, Mason said.

“They were just out looking for trouble,” he said.

“I only have one question,” Alex Sarabia said Tuesday, tears welling in his eyes, “and that’s why they didn’t get out of the car and fight him instead of using their car. I don’t think they would have dared to fight my brother man to man.”

Alex, who suffered minor injuries in the incident, said he had tried to pull his brother out of the path of the car during the attack. But it was moving so fast, he said, that he didn’t have a chance.

Earlier Incidents

Near the scene of the killing, Mason said, police stopped a car in connection with two earlier incidents in which people had been threatened with a handgun.

In one of those incidents, three men in a car had pointed a .22-caliber handgun at a motorist after an argument near the intersection of Garden Grove Boulevard and Palm Street, Mason said. In the second incident, Mason said, three men in a car took a gallon of gasoline from a store and pulled a gun on an employee who tried to stop them.

Police were not aware of the Sarabia killing when they stopped the car, Mason said. Inside were three men, Dallas Keith Carter of Costa Mesa, 18, Ernest J. Bustos, 20, of Garden Grove and Sergio Sanchez, 18, of Santa Ana, Mason said.

Also found in the car were a .22-caliber handgun and spent cartridges, Mason said.

After the car was stopped, the three were identified as suspects in the Sarabia killing and were booked at the Orange County Jail, Mason said.

Tuesday afternoon, Javier Sarabia’s parents, Hector and Aurora Sarabia, remembered their son as someone who would go out of his way to help another person. They said he was a frequent blood donor at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Often Helped Neighbors

A former paramedic in the Army, he had been a construction worker with a San Pedro company since 1985, they said, and often did odd jobs for neighbors as a favor.

“His character was really kind,” Aurora Sarabia said.

Hector Jr. recalled how he had tried Sunday at the barbecue to set his younger brother up with a date.

“He was scheduled to take her out the following Tuesday, which is today,” said Hector Sarabia Jr., “and he never made it.”

Now, family members say, they want justice.

“They should be put to death,” said Hector Sarabia, “just to set an example. . . . That is the only way to set an example for the other prowlers that still are around on the streets.”

Hector Sarabia also wants to set an example for his neighbors, many of whom he says watched and did nothing during the entire incident.

“Be aware of what is happening,” he said. “I don’t want this to happen to the families of other young kids.”