Man Slain After Apparent Dispute in Traffic

Police were searching Friday for two motorcyclists suspected of killing a Los Angeles developer after he exited the Santa Monica Freeway during an apparent traffic dispute.

Ronald Barry Ordin, 59, was shot once in the head at close range Thursday by a motorcycle passenger who “exchanged words with the victim” before firing at least four shots through the driver’s side window of Ordin’s car, said Los Angeles Police Detective Andy Monsue. Ordin died at the scene.

Witnesses told investigators that Ordin and the pair on the motorcycle had just gotten off the freeway at National Boulevard during the evening rush hour, and turned onto the 3300 block of Manning Avenue when the motorcycle suddenly sped up and pulled alongside the victim.

“The men on the motorcycle said something that appeared to be confrontational in nature,” Monsue said. However, witnesses did not hear the exchange, the detective said.

Police said the shooting resembles other freeway killings over the past several years that were triggered by minor traffic incidents. But, detectives said, the incident was particularly disturbing because of the brazen manner with which the gunman brandished his weapon during rush hour and on a busy street.

“There are a lot of disputes happening at that time of day,” Monsue said. “It’s unusual someone would so readily produce a gun in front of so many people.”

Detectives were still looking for witnesses who saw how the dispute began, or who had information on the whereabouts of the men on the motorcycle.

The men were described as 35 to 40 years old. The driver was described as African-American, with medium length hair and wearing a grimy T-shirt. The passenger was described as Latino, weighing about 270 pounds, with long hair, pulled back, and wearing a soiled and torn red T-shirt.

Police said the motorcycle was a dirty, black, older model Harley- Davidson, possibly a Harley lowrider model, with an extended fork.

After the shooting, the motorcyclists made a U-turn and got back onto the Santa Monica Freeway, heading east, Monsue said.

The slain man’s son, Lance Ordin, a reserve officer for the Culver City Police Department, said his father had been on his usual way home from his downtown office when the shooting occurred.

Ronald Ordin was the successor to his father’s development and management company, Philip Ordin Properties. Ordin and his family owned commercial buildings in downtown Los Angeles and land in the Antelope Valley.

“He would never have initiated something like this,” Lance Ordin said. “He was a very simple man. . . . But he knows what happens on the freeway. He knew about crazy shootings.”