Revenge May Have Led to Slaying : Crime: Friends and family say a popular busboy was killed because he didn’t marry the mother of his child.

The body of a Mission Hills busboy was shipped to Mexico this week, leaving a question as to whether gunmen shot him by mistake or in retaliation for refusing to marry the mother of his child.

Police initially said Pedro Delatorre Munoz, 20, may have been mistaken for a gang member because of his clothing by five men who jumped out of the bushes at his Van Nuys apartment Aug. 9 and gunned him down. Detectives said the slaying may have been related to a gang shooting in which two men were wounded four hours earlier half a block away.

But friends and relatives of the slain man said Wednesday that they believe Delatorre, whose good looks and lighthearted manner made him popular with women, was killed in revenge for fathering a daughter out of wedlock. The infant is now 6 months old.

“It was his only downfall--he wouldn’t do right by her,” said one of Delatorre’s friends, referring to the mother of the dead man’s child, whom she could not identify.

Delatorre had been beaten up last month by a group of men angry over his refusal to marry the mother of his child, said Javier Delatorre, 22, one of the dead man’s brothers.

The slaying “wasn’t a mistake” because the gunmen got close enough to identify Delatorre, Javier Delatorre said. “I would like the police to solve this and not just forget about it,” he said.

Police declined to comment Wednesday on the family’s beliefs, saying the investigation is continuing. “We aren’t disregarding anything,” said Detective James Vojtecky of the Los Angeles Police Department. “Any motive is possible.”

Ten relatives of the slain man accompanied his body Wednesday to the central Mexican state of Zacatecas, where Delatorre’s parents live in the small farming town of Jerez. The cost of a memorial service in Norwalk, shipping the body, a funeral in Jerez and the airline tickets--at least $8,000--is a financial burden for the family, said Delatorre’s uncle Augustin Delatorre, 57, a Norwalk locker room attendant.

But since Delatorre died last week, customers and employees of Millie’s Country Kitchen, where he worked for about two years, have been filling a plastic soup container on the counter with small change and bills to help his family with expenses.

Nearby, a red and white floral cross and a poem written by one of the employees form a makeshift shrine to the busboy who workers called “Gato”--cat--because of his catlike brown eyes.

The workers have collected about $1,000, including a $500 contribution from their employer, R&M; Food Services, which owns 18 restaurants.

“He was the kind of guy who would follow me home after midnight to make sure I got there safely,” said Sabina Orabovich, 22, an assistant manager at the restaurant. “Everyone here loved him.”