Junkyard Employee Killed in Dispute Over Towing Fee

An employee of a Wilmington junkyard was shot and killed at the yard early Thursday when he intervened in an argument over a towing fee, Los Angeles police said.

“He was the peacemaker,” Lt. Larry Hinrichs said of the victim, Donald Dean Dollard, 55, of Long Beach.

Dollard, homicide investigators said, was killed about 4 a.m. at a junkyard in the 1000 block of Foote Avenue. Shortly after the shooting, investigators arrested Napoleon Godoy, 28, of Wilmington on suspicion of murder. Godoy, they said, was one of two men operating the tow truck.

Early Thursday morning, according to Hinrichs, Dollard and another employee of the yard were at the site awaiting the arrival of a car. The car’s owner had arranged for it to be brought to the yard by a tow truck.

When the car and tow truck arrived, however, an argument began over the towing fee, Hinrichs said. Detectives investigating the shooting were told that a co-worker of Dollard’s had arranged to have the car towed to the yard for $35, but that the tow truck operators demanded $60.

As Dollard’s co-worker argued over the charge with the tow truck operators, Dollard intervened in the dispute, Hinrichs said. As he did, the passenger in the tow truck allegedly pulled a shotgun from the vehicle and shot Dollard, who died at the scene, Hinrichs said.

“The victim tried to intervene. For that, he gets shot and killed,” he said.

After the shooting, the tow truck operators fled the yard, abandoning their vehicle about two blocks away. A search of the area, which includes numerous junkyards, warehouses and industrial shops, turned up Godoy, police said.

Godoy was being held at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Harbor Division. Police said a search continued Thursday for the second suspect in the shooting.