Irate Killer Slain By Bystander, Police Believe

A mechanic who had just been fired sprayed an auto repair shop with gunfire Wednesday, wounding his boss and the boss’s wife and killing a customer before a bystander shot him to death, police said.

The shootings occurred shortly before 3 p.m. after Alfonso Alonzo Romero, the owner of El Gato Repair Shop at 1706 W. 1st St., fired the mechanic, Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said. Romero then asked the mechanic to return his uniform, Helton said, and that’s when the mechanic pulled out a 9-millimeter pistol and began shooting.

Although investigators are not certain what happened next, they believe that a bystander picked up a gun from the body of the dead customer and fired at the mechanic, hitting him in the head. The mechanic was later pronounced dead at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Neither the mechanic nor the slain customer was identified.

The bystander then ran from the repair shop and drove off in a 1981 yellow Toyota pickup truck. He was last seen heading north on Walnut Street, police said. A witness, however, said that she saw two men run from the shop.

“This person on the premises saw the gun, grabbed it and then shot the suspect. We don’t consider him a suspect right now. He is, however, a major material witness,” Helton said.

Investigators said they do not know what the bystander did with the gun as he fled from the auto repair shop. He could face possible charges, but for now he is only wanted for questioning, Helton said.

Although several witnesses said they heard as many as seven shots, police said they do not know how many were fired.

“There was a whole lot of shots fired. We can’t make an exact count yet,” Helton said.

Investigators late Wednesday were interviewing witnesses and trying to piece together the sequence of events.

Romero, 30, was apparently the first to be shot. He was taken to UCI Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition with head and chest wounds. He underwent surgery late Wednesday.

His 18-year-old wife, Elia Padilla, was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where she was listed in serious condition with wounds in the side and shoulders.

El Gato Repair is in a small outdoor mall that includes three other auto repair shops and an upholstery store. Several witnesses were either at El Gato or at the other stores in the mall, police said.

At least seven witnesses were being questioned by the police Wednesday evening.

Residents near the mall said they heard at least seven shots fired and a woman screaming. The gunfire sounded like “a car backfiring,” said one resident, Maribel Munoz, 13.

Tillie Flores, who lives on Walnut Street, said she saw not one but two men run from the mall after the shootings. One man ran north and the other, who police believe was the bystander who killed the suspect, jumped into a Toyota truck and sped off.

“They looked terrified. They did not look like they wanted to be around at all,” Flores said.

Staff writers Bob Schwartz, Matt Lait and Davan Maharaj contributed to this report.

VIOLENCE ON THE JOB

Some Southern California cases involving disgruntled workers who committed violence against their bosses:

Dec. 9, 1987--David A. Burke, whose ex-boss had refused to give Burke back his job at USAir in Los Angeles, opens fire during a Pacific Southwest Airlines flight to San Francisco. The jetliner crashes near Paso Robles, killing Burke, his ex-boss and 41 others.

March 31, 1986--Fidel Gonzalez Jr. fatally shoots Louis H. Zuniga Jr., his boss at the Garden Grove unemployment office, before killing himself. An investigation reveals that Gonzalez was suffering from job stress.

Nov. 8, 1985--Ivory Joe Valentine fatally stabs his supervisor at the Dynachem Corp. plant in Tustin and wounds the company’s personnel chief. He was convicted of second-degree murder.