Violent Death for Quiet, Gentle Man : Crime: Laszlo Szegedi never threatened the teen-agers who sprayed graffiti on his fence--until Sunday. He came at them with a rifle, but he ended up the victim instead.

Friends describe Laszlo Szegedi as a gentle man who used his hands to create and repair, never to harm. When gang members sprayed graffiti on the fence of his Atwater sheet-metal business, the Hungarian immigrant would quietly ask them to stop. Then he would paint over it.

“He never scream,” said Frank Lebbeszki, a fellow Hungarian who operated a construction business on the same lot as Szegedi. “Of course he don’t like it. But he never scream.”

The last time gang members painted his fence, however, Szegedi told Lebbeszki that he had had enough. “He said the next time, he does not ask. He just get action,” Lebbeszki said.

Szegedi, 39, was fatally shot late Sunday night with his own gun after three or four young men wrested it away from him in the driveway behind his apartment and adjoining shop, A-Z Sheet Metal at 3056 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles police said.

The youths, who police estimate were 16 to 18 years old, shot Szegedi and a customer with a rifle that Szegedi brought out from the apartment to chase them away, Police Detective John Munguia said.

The customer, Lorent Kis, 25, of Lancaster was in serious condition at County-USC Medical Center Tuesday with two gunshot wounds in his right upper torso, hospital spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda said.

There are no suspects in the shooting and Munguia said police do not know whether it was gang-related. Police did not recover the weapon, and could find not any record of weapons registered in Szegedi’s name, he said.

Szegedi was taken to Glendale Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to his chest at 12:25 a.m. Monday, Munguia said. He died just days before his mother was scheduled to arrive from Hungary to visit.

Szegedi, who came to the United States at least eight years ago, had sent his mother a ticket to visit him and his sister, Georgina Jenei of Burbank, because Jenei is expecting a baby, Lebbeszki said.

Szegedi “was so happy yesterday morning that his mother is coming this week,” Lebbeszki said Monday. “One life come, one life gone.”

Police said Szegedi was working on Kis’ trailer in the shop driveway and then left about 11:30 p.m., Munguia said. When he returned in his pickup, three or four youths accosted him in the driveway.

Szegedi ran inside his apartment, grabbed his rifle and ran back out, Munguia said. The youths wrested the gun away from him and shot him and Kis, Munguia said.

Victor Hernandez, who lives in an apartment in the same building, heard someone calling his name and ran outside to see Kis and Szegedi shot with the rifle and the youths running down the street. Hernandez, Szegedi’s assistant, also saw the letter “T” sprayed on Szegedi’s white truck, he told police. Terrified, he ran back inside and called police.

Munguia, who impounded the truck, said police were trying to determine when the “T” was painted on the truck. “It doesn’t mean anything right now,” he said. The truck’s windshield also was smashed, he said.

Janos Fejes, another Hungarian friend of Szegedi’s, said that although most area residents would try to chase away youths vandalizing buildings, Szegedi usually used a more gentle approach.

“He was always asking them, ‘Why are you doing that? Please stop doing that,’ ” Fejes said. “He was a very quiet person.”

Friends of Szegedi’s and Jenei’s were packing Szegedi’s belongings Tuesday, including a guitar and a keyboard.

“He was very good with his hands. He was a genius,” said family friend Michael Chapa. “And he would go out of his way to help people.”

Hernandez said he could vouch for that. Szegedi took him under his wing soon after he emigrated from Guatemala about a year ago and taught him how to work with materials, he said. Szegedi also recently bought a truck from Lebbeszki to teach Hernandez how to drive, Lebbeszki said.

Jenei, Szegedi’s only relative in this country, will close down the business, Chapa said.

“I don’t know what I will do,” Hernandez said.