Labor Agent Fatally Shot at Union Hall

A union official was fatally wounded Wednesday by a gunman who burst into the union hall on the Los Angeles-Harbor Gateway strip, fired two shots into his head and escaped in a car.

Police said Walter Sanford, 56, a business agent for the Steam, Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Pipefitters Union, Local 250, was shot by a man who confronted him about 8 a.m. in a union hall conference room.

Several witnesses saw the shooting but told police that they did not observe any earlier arguments between the two men, said Los Angeles Police Detective Patrick Marshall.

“A suspect walked into the union location and, for unknown reasons, produced a handgun and shot the victim in the head,” Marshall said.

A third bullet apparently lodged in the ceiling of the conference room, which faces out on the 18300 block of Figueroa Street.

Sanford, a Lakewood resident, was pronounced dead at 2:55 p.m. at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said Ilene Schwartz, the hospital’s assistant administrator. Sanford had been placed on life-support equipment after paramedics brought him to the hospital.

Marshall said detectives are seeking a suspect identified as Richard Soiset, 53, a journeyman steamfitter from Long Beach. The suspect carried a “western-style” handgun and drove from the shooting scene in a light-yellow Oldsmobile.

Although union officials were not available for comment, Bud Mathis, an executive secretary for the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades Council, described Sanford as “a very personable man” who was active in union affairs.

“He was upstanding and devoted to the union,” Mathis said.

As business agent for the local, Sanford was responsible for much of the union’s daily operations, Mathis said.

The union official added that the Steamfitters Union had no previous history of violence.