Police Baffled by Absence of Witnesses in the Slaying of Salvadoran Immigrant

Napoleon Armando Rivera went to the Sepulveda Recreation Center on Cinco de Mayo to relax and listen to music. Late that evening, Los Angeles police found his body on a sidewalk next to the park.

Nearly three weeks later, detectives have no suspects in the fatal shooting they believe might have occurred during a robbery. But what is more baffling to them is that they have no witnesses, and that the person who reported the slaying called from a pay phone more than a mile from the park.

“This happened in a park on Cinco de Mayo and we can’t find any witnesses,” Detective James Vojtecky said in a news conference at the park Thursday. “We feel there had to have been people here, but we haven’t been able to find them. It’s a strange case because we are spending our time trying to identify witnesses before we can identify a suspect.”

Rivera, 28, of Panorama City, was a Salvadoran immigrant who worked at a McDonald’s in Van Nuys. Police said he often came to the park at Kester Avenue and Parthenia Street in his spare time.

On the evening of Saturday, May 5, investigators said, many people were at the park to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with live music and family picnics. By comparison, when police went to the park the following Saturday evening they found about 250 people but no witnesses to the previous week’s slaying.

By the time Rivera was shot about 10 p.m., investigators concede that the number of people in the park had probably thinned considerably. Investigators said they are looking for anyone who might have witnessed the shooting or had seen Rivera earlier in the evening.

Detective Phil Morritt said police were not alerted to the shooting until 11 p.m. when a man made a 911 call from a pay phone at Roscoe Boulevard and Woodman Avenue, more than a mile away. “When officers arrived at the park there was no one here,” Morritt said. “They found the body.”

Police said they are trying to find the caller because there is a chance he might have seen the shooting or something that will aid the investigation. Morritt said the man, a Latino, told the emergency operator that his name was Mario and that he lived in North Hollywood. He said he left the park before calling because he was with his 7-month-old son.