Woman’s Calls Buried by ‘So Many Cases’ : Crime: The victim phoned police four times before she was killed, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend. “We can’t provide personal bodyguards,” an officer says.

Authorities say the death of Anna Alfaro, a Van Nuys secretary allegedly slain by a former boyfriend whose violent behavior she had reported to police four times, illustrates a basic lesson of urban life: Police cannot protect every person who is threatened.

Los Angeles police said that limited manpower and the large number of reports of domestic violence--along with threats of violence--force them to follow a process in which cases are evaluated for seriousness and urgency, and legal action against a suspect can take several days.

“We can’t provide personal bodyguards,” said Detective Sherry Santor, supervisor of the Van Nuys Division’s crimes against persons, or CAPS, unit.

“We need more police officers and detectives,” Santor said. “But I believe we respond quite well with what we have.

“This was one of the more serious scenarios. Some people fall through the cracks, not because of us but because some people . . . just get caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Ruben Dario Garcia, 20, described by police as a gang member and transient, is charged with the Christmas Eve slaying of Alfaro. Authorities said that in a jealous rage, Garcia abducted Alfaro, 22, from her family’s home and shot her to death. He is being sought by police.

In the four months before the shooting, Alfaro repeatedly called police to complain about alleged threats and assaults by Garcia. But in each of those cases Alfaro suffered only slight injuries and Garcia had fled by the time police arrived.

Alfaro’s crime reports were not handled as a priority. They were among about 1,600 similar cases handled by Van Nuys Division detectives during the same four-month period. Police said each of Alfaro’s calls was investigated, but there was no hint of the extreme violence that would happen later.

“There are so many cases . . .,” Detective Jim Vojtecky said of the need to set priorities on crime reports. “That’s the way these have to be handled.”

The fact that police could not provide protection to Alfaro also illustrates the need for victims of domestic violence to take steps to get out of harm’s way, authorities said.

Santor said that police routinely counsel assault victims to take such measures as moving away from an abusive partner, seeking court restraining orders, staying at homes for battered women and following the adage that there is safety in numbers. “The victims have to take some precautions on their own,” she said.

Alfaro did take some measures to safeguard herself, but in the end she could not always avoid Garcia, police said.

Police and family members described the relationship of Alfaro and Garcia as on-again, off-again for more than a year. They said Alfaro had been trying to break permanently with Garcia in recent months and that she had made plans to marry a former boyfriend she had begun dating.

Alfaro first called police for help on Sept. 12, according to records. She said that during a visit to Garcia’s Panorama City apartment, the couple argued and he slapped her and knocked her to the ground.

A patrol officer completed a report but took no action because Garcia was gone when authorities arrived. As is routine, the case was referred to detectives in the crimes against persons unit.

Santor said the CAPS unit has four detectives, each of whom handles about 100 new cases each month. The caseload--nearly half of which involves domestic violence--ranges from reports of misdemeanor batteries to aggravated assaults. Police said regardless of the brutality of a crime, every victim is contacted by detectives and each case investigated. Top priority is given to cases involving the most serious injuries.

Alfaro was contacted by detectives and said she wanted to press charges in the Sept. 12 incident. Garcia was charged by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office with two misdemeanor battery counts 17 days after Alfaro called police.

Garcia was not arrested on the charges, however. Because the case involved only a misdemeanor, a notice to appear for arraignment was mailed to him at the apartment where the alleged battery took place. It is unclear whether Garcia ignored the notice or did not receive it because he had moved out. But court records show he did not appear for arraignment and a warrant for his arrest was issued.

In effect, police did not look for Garcia. The warrant was entered routinely into local law enforcement computers, meaning he would be taken into custody only if he was stopped by police and his name checked for warrants.

Garcia apparently had no such encounter with police. Alfaro reported to police that on Nov. 16, Garcia assaulted her again--this time at her family’s home on Hazeltine Avenue. But when a CAPS detective contacted her for a follow-up investigation she said she did not want to file charges.

Police said that since there was no evidence of serious injury in the assault, the case was dropped. “We can’t force victims to testify,” said Santor, who noted that people who report domestic abuse frequently decide not to press charges.

The detective said the decision often is part of the “battered woman cycle” in which women drop cases because they feel guilt or shame after reporting a spouse or boyfriend to police. “The woman blames herself for what happened,” she said.

Alfaro called police again Dec. 11 to report an assault by Garcia. Although officers said Alfaro once again declined to press charges against her former boyfriend, records show the case had not been officially dropped. Detectives had learned Garcia was a member of a North Hollywood gang and the case was referred to an anti-gang unit for follow-up investigation. The case was still open when Alfaro was killed.

Vojtecky, a supervisor on the investigation of Alfaro’s death, said Garcia is a transient and a gang member familiar with the streets of Van Nuys, North Hollywood and downtown areas.

“If we were going to pick him up, where were we going to go?” Vojtecky asked.

By mid-December, Alfaro told police she was going to seek a restraining order against Garcia, which would give police the authority to arrest him if he came near her. She had moved from her family’s home to a house she shared with a friend a few blocks away.

But police said Alfaro never got the court order and that her move to a new residence did not stop Garcia from trying to harm her. Family members said he confronted her at the office where she worked as a secretary. He also learned her new address and confronted her there.

Alfaro’s last call to police came on Dec. 22, two days before her slaying. She told officers that Garcia came to her new home and they argued. She said he threatened her with a knife. Once again, Garcia was gone when police arrived and was not arrested. Alfaro had only a small scratch to show for the encounter.

Meanwhile, a second arrest warrant was issued for Garcia, this time because he had stopped reporting to a probation officer for a 1988 auto theft conviction. Technically, he should have been in jail, but Garcia was not actively being sought by police and he apparently avoided contact with officers that would reveal the warrants for his arrest.

The Dec. 22 knife threat against Alfaro was referred to the detective bureau for follow up. But because Alfaro made her complaint on a Friday night, detectives would not see the report until after the Christmas weekend.

By then, Alfaro was dead.

Perhaps following police advice to practice safety in numbers, she asked her 20-year-old brother, Fidel Alfaro, to accompany her Christmas Eve when she delivered gifts to their parents’ apartment on Hazeltine Avenue. But Fidel was unable to join her.

When Anna Alfaro arrived at the home about 10:30 p.m., she was abducted at gunpoint by Garcia, police said. Less than a half-hour later, she was found shot to death behind an apartment building half a block away.

“If I had been here, this would not have happened,” Fidel Alfaro said a few days later.

But authorities said guilt and blame for the young woman’s death should go no further than her killer.

“Maybe the only thing that would have saved her would have been being with people; safety in numbers,” Santor said. “But maybe nothing could have saved her.”

Times staff writer Steve Padilla contributed to this report.