Widow Tells of Shoot-Out at Auto Shop

Elia Padilla lay in her hospital bed Thursday night and recounted with horror the details of the grisly shoot-out at her husband’s auto repair shop.

She did not yet know that her husband, Alfonso Alonso Romero, 31, had died earlier in the day at another hospital.

Padilla, who was resting in a room at Western Medical Center, suffered two gunshot wounds in Wednesday’s attack that left three people dead. She said that the assailant, a mechanic her husband had fired, gave no indication of how upset he was until he opened fire with a 9-millimeter handgun.

Padilla said it appeared as if the mechanic wanted to greet her and her husband as they arrived at El Gato Auto Repair shortly before 3 p.m.

Instead, the mechanic, identified by Padilla only as “Rolando,” “reached in back of him and pulled out a pistol,” Padilla said.

“He aimed it at my husband and shot twice. I screamed, ‘No! No! Don’t do this!’ ” Padilla said in Spanish.

Padilla, 18, said that after the mechanic shot her husband, he took aim at her. The shot missed her but hit Victoriano Salgato Delgado, a family friend who was just outside the shop.

As Delgado fell to the ground mortally wounded, the mechanic “turned the gun on me, shot me twice and I went down,” Padilla said.

It was then, police say, that Alfonso’s 22-year-old brother, Juan Alonso Romero, spotted a gun tucked in Delgado’s waistband, grabbed it and shot the mechanic.

Police said they are uncertain why Delgado, 29, a transient, was carrying a weapon.

Juan Romero fled after the shooting. He was being sought Thursday night only for questioning, although criminal charges had not been ruled out, Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said.

“I don’t know if he was being heroic or trying to save his own life,” Helton said. “We need to talk to him to find out.”

Helton said investigators want to question Padilla and Juan Romero to find out if any other motive may have been behind the shootings.

Co-workers at the auto repair shop at 1706 W. 1st St. and former employers of the slain mechanic said he usually was a nice, quiet man.

The mechanic, who has not been identified pending notification of his relatives, apparently had been employed at two other auto shops along West 1st Street before getting hired at El Gato in June, 1988--about the same time the shop opened.

His employment at El Gato was not steady, his co-workers said. He had been fired and then rehired last year, they said.

“He was always very quiet, not at all troublesome,” said Jerry Reese, owner of Mexico Tires and Wheels in Santa Ana.

Danny Lozano, who once worked with him at Mexico Tires and Wheels, said the mechanic he knew as “Rolando” was a steady worker when he was employed there two years ago.

After leaving Mexico Tires and Wheels, “Rolando” often came back to visit his former employers.

“He was always calm and responsible. He often took care of the shop,” Lozano said.

However, Lozano said the mechanic was visibly upset the last time he visited about two weeks ago.

“He looked different. His eyes were all spacey like he was upset,” Lozano said.

Padilla said she was scheduled to be released from the hospital Thursday evening.

Her husband was pronounced dead at UCI Medical Center at 8:23 a.m. An autopsy was scheduled for today, police said.

Times staff writer Lily Eng contributed to this report.