What Should Have Been a Happy Day . . .

It should have been just another night shift, but then Anand Dewan should not have been working at all. He was only there filling in for a co-worker who had other plans.

The trouble was that Dewan had plans too. It was his wedding anniversary and Dewan and his wife had planned a day at Disneyland, dinner and then maybe a visit to a local park with their two children.

Dewan never made it. On the night he wasn’t supposed to be working, on the evening he had planned to spend with his wife celebrating their ninth year of marriage, someone thrust a knife into his chest and he died.

Dewan, 38, was killed about 10:30 p.m. Thursday during a robbery at the El Pollo Loco restaurant in the 16000 block of Golden West Boulevard in Huntington Beach. He was the shift manager at the time.

A former employee at the restaurant, Hilario Vaca Arroyo, 21, was arrested about 3 a.m. on suspicion of murder and robbery. Arroyo was scheduled to be arraigned Monday. Bail was set at $250,000.

Huntington Beach Police Sgt. James Cutshaw said Arroyo, who was arrested at his Huntington Beach apartment, used to work at the same restaurant, but Cutshaw alleged that Arroyo had gone there Thursday night “with the intention of robbing the place. He went in there and there was an altercation, and Dewan was stabbed.”

Cutshaw said it was Dewan who called the police after he was stabbed. “In the process, he ended up dropping the phone because of his injuries,” Cutshaw said. The injured manager was rushed to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center but was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.

Police said a small amount of money was taken from the restaurant, but it was not immediately known whether any of it had been recovered.

Told Not to Intervene

It also was not immediately known how the altercation started. Dewan’s twin brother, Shanti, said it was not like his brother to try to intervene to stop a robbery.

“They are always told not to do anything” or resist during a robbery, he said. “My brother would never have done that.”

At Anand Dewan’s house on Presidio Drive in Costa Mesa, the family gathered Friday to plan a funeral and memorial service. Shanti Dewan said his brother’s children, 10-year-old Tani and her 6-year-old brother, Punit, had not stopped crying since learning of their father’s death.

Their mother, Nivi Dewan, also was grieving, and now faces “working and supporting the children for the first time,” Shanti Dewan said.

“Nivi just started to work 2 months ago,” he said. “She never worked in her life, but now she’ll have to to support the kids. (Anand Dewan’s) daughter hasn’t stopped crying since morning. His little boy is lost. He cries.”

Family members said Nivi Dewan was not notified of her husband’s death until Friday morning, almost 12 hours after he was killed. They said she awoke asking others, “Where is he? He’s never late.”

Shanti Dewan said he first came to the United States from New Delhi 14 years ago, and was followed shortly by his brother. They first settled in Ocean City, N.J., then moved to Southern California about 9 or 10 years ago.

Anand Dewan first opened a restaurant in Newport Beach and then later a bar in Corona del Mar. He was successful but switched jobs to work for El Pollo Loco as a manager about 4 months ago to “spend more time with his family,” his brother said.

“He was young. I don’t think he had any enemies. He loved working there. That’s why he was working on his wedding anniversary,” his brother said. “My brother was a most loving person. He got along with everyone. They said they caught the person who did it, but it won’t bring my brother back.”

Dewan was supposed to have taken Thursday off but decided to work so that another manager could have the time off. The trip to Disneyland and the special dinner with his wife was rescheduled for Friday.

Friday Celebration Planned

“They were going to celebrate their anniversary today (Friday),” Shanti Dewan said. “He liked to help people. He didn’t have to work those nights. I asked him why he did it, and he said that the other manager had things to do.”

Shanti Dewan, a real estate salesman in Anaheim Hills, said the funeral would be delayed until his four sisters and another brother could arrive from New Delhi.

“It is sad,” he said. “My brother was one of the greatest guys you ever could be around. He was very close to his family.”

“We were very happy” in the United States,” he added. “Why did we come? Oh, we were young. It was an adventure, a better life.

“I keep thinking about this. Sometimes you wonder if it was worth it coming here to get killed.”