Pair Flee After Slaying Guard at Lawndale Warehouse Store

A 62-year-old security guard was shot and killed Tuesday night by two men who confronted him as he patrolled outside a warehouse discount store in Lawndale.

The guard, whose name was being withheld until relatives were notified of the death, died in the parking lot of Costco Wholesale in the 5000 block of Marine Avenue after being struck several times in the upper body, authorities said Wednesday.

Employees at Costco told investigators that they were preparing to secure the store for the night when they heard several shots coming from the parking lot in front of the building. Witnesses watched on a video monitor and through a doorway peephole as two men carrying handguns ran to a white Chevrolet or Pontiac passenger van parked nearby and fled.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said the two assailants may have been ready to rob the store, but were intercepted by the guard.

As Costco and similar warehouse discount clubs have proliferated in Southern California during the past few years, there have been a growing number of incidents of armed robbery, said John Eagan, vice president of general merchandising for the Seattle-based Costco.

The Lawndale store was robbed at gunpoint shortly before Christmas last year, Eagan said.

Since last year’s robbery, Costco has contracted with a private company, United Security Industries of Los Angeles, to patrol the Lawndale store. The company provides a guard who monitors the parking area during the last two hours of the store’s operation.

Officials with the firm declined to give any information about the slain guard or the case.

Detectives said the passenger van in which the gunmen escaped was a 1990 model Lumina or Transvan, with taillights high on the vehicle’s back panel.