Shooting Victim Had Told Police of Threat : Slaying: The suspect sought in the death should have been in jail on the night the woman was attacked.

Two days before she was slain Christmas Eve by a man police described as a jealous ex-boyfriend and gang member, Anna Alfaro of Van Nuys called police to say the man had threatened her with a knife during an argument, authorities said Wednesday.

Police said they were going to refer the complaint to detectives after the holidays, but by then, Alfaro was dead.

While the Alfaro’s family prepared for her burial, Los Angeles police disclosed Wednesday that at the time of the slaying, Ruben Dario Garcia, 20, was being sought on a probation violation and should have been in jail the night of the killing.

Alfaro’s relatives said Garcia sometimes hit and abused her. Alfaro reported to police that she was assaulted by Garcia on Sept. 12, Nov. 16 and Dec. 11, according to police records.

Detective Pat Anguiano said Garcia was charged with misdemeanor battery after the first report and that case is still pending. Alfaro declined to file charges in the other two attacks.

The fourth incident occurred Friday--two days before Alfaro was dragged from her family’s home and shot to death. She called police at 6 p.m. and reported that Garcia visited her house in the 7400 block of Woodman Avenue and threatened her with a knife.

By the time officers arrived, Garcia was gone.

On Christmas Eve, Garcia reportedly abducted Alfaro from her parents’ Hazeltine Avenue home when she arrived to deliver Christmas presents. Her body was found a block away.

Although Garcia should have been in jail before the killing because of a probation violation, he was not taken into custody because of the backlog of such warrants in Los Angeles County, authorities said.

Garcia was on probation for a June, 1988, grand theft auto conviction, according to court records. On Dec. 20--four days before Alfaro’s murder--his probation was revoked after Deputy Probation Officer Karl Corrington told a judge that Garcia had stopped attending monthly probation meetings.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber issued a bench warrant ordering Garcia arrested and jailed without bail.

But Garcia was not picked up by police. Authorities said that bench warrants for probation and parole revocation are issued so frequently that it is impossible for police to search for the individuals ordered arrested.

“At any one time, there are thousands and thousands in the system,” said Carol Jackson, a spokeswoman for the county Probation Department.

Garcia is believed to be a member of a North Hollywood gang, which could shelter him in the area.

“It’s his turf. He knows the place,” Anguiano said.

Alfaro’s brothers and cousins said in interviews that Garcia was obsessed with the woman. Garcia would call her at work and showed up at her office unexpectedly, said Ernest Alfaro, one of her brothers.

“He was so jealous about my sister,” he said. “That’s because she wanted to dump him and go back to her old boyfriend.”

Ricardo Alfaro, Alfaro’s father, described Garcia as a hanger-on who would sometimes show up at dances attended by his daughter and her fiance.

Since the killing and subsequent threats allegedly made by Garcia against family members, Alfaro’s relatives said they are living in a surreal atmosphere of fear, confusion and sadness.

“It just brings more anger and pain,” said Fidel Alfaro, 20, one of the shooting victim’s four brothers.

Police confirmed one sighting of Garcia in the Alfaro family’s neighborhood on Christmas night.

For the grieving Alfaro family, the alleged threats have compounded the difficulty of coping with the loss of Anna Alfaro, a 22-year-old secretary who had hoped to marry sometime this year.

Police said Garcia’s alleged threats against the family prompted them to place the Alfaro home under police protection. On Wednesday, black-and-white patrol cars slowly cruised up and down the street.

The family spent Wednesday making arrangements to bury Anna Alfaro in her native El Salvador. A Christmas tree stood in the living room, woefully out of place.

“Christmas will never be the same,” Fidel Alfaro said.

The night before, television crews and reporters clamored for interviews. Anna’s mother, Gloria Alfaro, fainted while watching news accounts of how her daughter’s alleged killer was now stalking the family.

The last reporters disappeared about 4 a.m. Wednesday. At mid-morning, the family members sat in the apartment, rarely talking. A Spanish-language soap opera played on the television, but no one watched.

Ricardo Alfaro led three friends into a bedroom of the modest apartment in Van Nuys and pointed to a white wedding dress hanging above a bed. Yes, the friends agreed, it was lovely.

The dress, intended for Anna Alfaro and fiance Luis Diaz’s wedding day, will instead to serve as her funeral shroud.