Local : Newport Beach Bartender Slain

A 47-year-old bartender at Delaney’s Restaurant in Newport Beach was shot and killed early today by a gunman who accosted him as he walked to his car after work.

The bartender lives in Newport Beach, but his name was withheld until relatives could be notified. Police Lt. Bob Oakley said the bartender was killed about 1 a.m. as he walked to his car parked in the 3000 block of Lafayette Avenue near the Cannery restaurant.

Two men in a Toyota pickup truck drove the wrong way down Lafayette and stopped him, Oakley said. As the truck driver waited, the passenger got out, talked briefly with the bartender, then fired one shot into his chest.

“We have no idea at all why the shooting occurred,” he said. “We have a couple of witnesses but we are hoping more witnesses will call us because two restaurants in the area were still open and some people may have seen the incident and not realized what they were seeing.”