2 Slain in San Pedro; Victim’s Husband Held

A distraught Vietnam veteran--wearing combat camouflage clothing and armed with three guns--shot and killed his estranged wife and a man he mistakenly believed to be her lover in San Pedro before surrendering, police and neighbors said Tuesday.

Detectives said Robert Dils Jr., 46, a service station mechanic who had been separated from his wife since December, 1988, stopped by her home in the 2000 block of South Leland Street at about 8:30 p.m. Monday to pick up some personal items.

While he was there, officers said, Dils got into an argument with Salvatore Sabella, 24, who had been living in the home with Dils’ estranged wife, Diana, 44, the Dilses’ son, Robbie, 18, and their daughter, Shannon, 20.

“There was some jealousy there, and Robert is a heavy drinker,” said a neighbor, Ed Toledo, who has known the family for more than a decade. “He had it in his mind that Sal was Diana’s boyfriend.

“But he wasn’t. Sal was a friend of Shannon’s,” Toledo said.

Los Angeles police said Robert Dils left the house after the argument, but returned unexpectedly about an hour later.

Toledo’s wife, Linda, said the Dilses’ son told her that he was in the living room with Sabella when his father walked in, “wearing a camouflage outfit, with camouflage makeup on his face. Robbie said his dad was carrying a rifle and some other guns. He told Robbie to leave, and Robbie did.”

Moments later, Linda Toledo said, Shannon Dils, who was in her room, heard her mother shout, “What are you doing here?”

“Shannon said she came out of her room and she saw her dad standing there with a gun,” Linda Toledo said. “She told me she ran out onto the driveway, then looked back through the window and saw Sal, sitting in a chair, trying to call 911.

“She said she heard a shot, and saw Sal thrown backwards in the chair. Then she heard some other shots . . . I guess that was Diana.”

The two children ran to the Toledo home, less than a block away, and phoned police.

Officers said Robert Dils, who remained in the house after the shootings, surrendered without incident. He was booked at the LAPD’s Harbor Division station on suspicion of murder and was jailed without bail pending arraignment.

The Toledos spent much of Tuesday morning attempting to clean up uneaten food, dirty clothing, discarded magazines and soggy trash that were strewn in heaps throughout the five small rooms of Dils’ house, at the rear of another home on Leland Street.

“This is the way they lived,” Ed Toledo said. “Actually, it’s better since Robert left. He used to keep his outboard motors in here.”

Toledo said that while Robert Dils “was often abusive to his wife and children,” he “was not the sort of person you thought would do a thing like this.”

Toledo said that while he knew Dils was a Vietnam veteran who owned firearms, Dils was not given to militaristic posturing or brandishing the weapons.

The relevance of Dils’ get-up in the shootings and his combat experience as a Marine in Vietnam have not been determined, police said.

“We haven’t really sat down and talked with him in detail,” Detective Roosevelt Joseph said.