Victims Recall Downtown Terror : Gun Bought Just Before 3 Were Shot in Street

Rolando Rosario Ignacio purchased a high-powered handgun from a National City sporting goods store just hours before he allegedly wounded three people in a midday drive-by shooting Tuesday in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, police said Wednesday.

The 25-year-old native of the Philippines was booked on three counts of attempted murder and was being held Wednesday in the downtown San Diego County Jail. Police said charges are expected to be filed in the case Friday.

One of the victims on Wednesday described the shooting as a frightening incident in which it was difficult to tell from where the bullets were coming.

“I didn’t know where he was,” Robert Mengar, 59, said about the gunman. “On the roof with a high-powered rifle or something?”

Members of Ignacio’s family said in a brief interview at their home in the 400 block of Bethany Street in Southeast San Diego that the young man, who moved to the United States about 10 years ago, was under the care of a psychiatrist during 1984 and 1985.

“But we really thought now that he was OK,” said one of his sisters, who declined to give her name. “My brother really is very responsible. He wouldn’t harm anyone. That’s why we really can’t explain what happened.”

She said Ignacio, who had been working for a sales agency, was living off-and-on with her and another sister. She said the family now is searching for an attorney to represent Ignacio.

“This is all very sad,” she said. “We all feel so terrible.”

Police said Wednesday that the shooting appeared to be a random incident and stressed that they had no evidence that Ignacio was a gang member or a drug offender, like many of the other drive-by shooting assailants who have struck this year in San Diego.

Did Not Know Victims

“This shooting appears to be one in which the assailant did not know his victims,” said police spokesman Bill Robinson. “He is not a documented gang member that we are aware of. . . . But how do I say this tactfully? He was not in total control mentally either.”

Dave Cohen, another police spokesman, said police have learned that Ignacio has had some past mental problems. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if that isn’t a defense of his at trial,” Cohen said.

Police said Ignacio purchased a .357 magnum revolver Tuesday morning from the Weisser Sporting Goods store in National City after first going through the 15-day application review process. The store manager, reached by telephone Wednesday, refused to comment about the gun purchase.

But Lt. Craig Short of the National City Police Department said the state Department of Justice reviews gun applications and that his department receives copies of the purchase applications in their city. However, he said a person who has been under psychiatric care is not automatically denied a gun license.

“If everything’s fine and they’re not a convicted drug user or a convicted felon or never been committed to a mental institution, the sale goes through,” Short said. “But one of the key words there is ‘committed.’ ”

Police said Ignacio apparently drove to El Toyon Park near his home and fired six shots into the air. No one was injured, but witnesses called police with a partial description of the license plate to Ignacio’s white Ford Mustang.

About 20 minutes later, witnesses saw a white car drive past the corner of 4th Avenue and Market Street in the Gaslamp Quarter.

One of the victims, Mengar, was wounded in the right calf, suffering two broken bones between the ankle and knee.

Speaking from his hospital room at Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Mengar said he is disabled, on Medicare, and has suffered from cancer for the past 2 1/2 years. He said he has to undergo chemotherapy every six weeks and he was scheduled to begin his latest treatment today. He was listed in good condition.

Mengar said he was leaving a San Diego Lions Club meeting when he heard five shots that sounded “just like backfires.”

“I didn’t know that both bones were broken,” he said. “I ran across the street.”

His girlfriend, Cynthia Conyiers, 37, was wounded in the left calf, left thigh, left hand and right buttocks. The couple was crossing the street when the gunman began firing. When Conyiers was shot, she screamed, but Mengar said he thought she “was joking” until he “saw the blood on her hand.”

“It was happening so fast,” he said. “I said, ‘Let’s go to the sidewalk,’ but she collapsed” on the street.

Mengar said he never saw the gunman or the car.

“It was difficult to realize that we were being shot,” he said. “I wasn’t aware of it until I made my run for the sidewalk. I didn’t know where the bullets were coming from.”

Conyiers, a department store sales clerk, was in fair condition Wednesday at UC San Diego Medical Center.

The third victim, Susan Snyder, 29-year-old owner of a Gaslamp Quarter art gallery, was treated for a gunshot wound to the lower right leg but not hospitalized.

Witnesses to the shooting were able to complete the description of the car’s license plate, and Ignacio was arrested when he arrived at home.

Times staff writer H. H. Reza contributed to this report.