Arrest After Woman’s Death Stuns Avalon

Residents in quiet Avalon said they were stunned Thursday by the news that one of their neighbors had been arrested on suspicion of killing his former girlfriend, in the city’s first alleged murder in at least 40 years.

Bruce Edward Kingman, 41, was flown from Avalon to Long Beach on Thursday afternoon and then driven to the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station, where he was being held without bail for allegedly killing Gail Lynn Pissula, 34.

Some of Kingman’s friends and co-workers said she was a former girlfriend of his who had recently returned to Avalon in search of work.

‘Town Is Stunned’

“Everybody is shook up about it,” said Lolo Saldana, owner of the local barber shop. “The town is stunned.”

Paramedics received a call from Kingman about 4 a.m. Thursday and arrived at his trailer on Pebbly Road to find Pissula lying on the ground nearby, sheriff’s deputies said.

Kingman said Pissula came to his trailer and the two argued before she slipped and fell on a wooden patio, said Deputy Dan Cox. Kingman reportedly told deputies that he attempted to revive her but failed.

Sheriff’s officials declined to release other details or to say what led them to suspect Kingman of murder.

Kingman and Pissula had known each other at least since 1986, when both worked in Two Harbors, at the opposite end of the island, friends said.

For the past year, Kingman has managed Pebbly Beach Building Supply Co., a lumberyard just outside the center of Avalon, said Jack Fennie Jr., the owner of the business.

Fennie described Kingman as an excellent employee who reorganized the lumberyard and made it more profitable.

He lived alternately in a trailer behind the business and in a sailboat anchored not far offshore, Fennie said.

Kingman and the dead woman had lived together until they broke up last summer and she moved to the mainland, Fennie said. But Pissula had returned recently to look for a summer job in Avalon, he said.

Rare Crime

Don Haney, editor of the Catalina Islander newspaper, said the alleged killing had shocked the community. “But I don’t think there is a concern that the island has changed,” he said. “Not many things like this happen.”

John Windle, who served as constable on the island for 22 years, said there has not been a killing that led to a murder conviction on Catalina in at least 40 years.

One woman shot an intruder in her home in the early 1960s and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, said Fern Whelan, clerk of the Catalina Justice Court.