Effort to ‘Do Right Thing’ Turned Into a Tragedy

Chris Escamilla said he was just “trying to do the right thing” when he picked up two teen-age girls who flagged him down on a Lynwood street at 1:30 one morning last week and asked for a ride in his blue Cadillac.

“They looked like kids who shouldn’t have been out that late,” the 65-year-old retired trucker said Monday from his bed at Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center, where he is recovering from gunshot wounds received during what authorities said was a robbery attempt.

In the span of a few minutes, police said, Escamilla was shot and critically wounded by one of the girls. He returned fire with his .380-caliber handgun, fatally wounding Margaret Gonzales, 15, of Compton. She died a few hours later at a nearby hospital.

Gonzales’ 14-year-old companion, shot in the foot by Escamilla, was booked on suspicion of murder because a person died during the commission of a crime, authorities said. She was also booked on suspicion of attempted robbery. Both girls were members of a Compton-area street gang, police said.

“We’re treating Mr. Escamilla’s involvement as a case of self-defense,” sheriff’s investigator Ed Fielding said.

Escamilla, whom friends described as “the nicest guy you’ll ever meet,” said he encountered the girls as he took a late-night drive.

“They yelled at me and waved and I stopped,” he said. “They needed a ride and they looked harmless so I said I’d take them.”

At the Honey Bee Doughnut Shop near the Huntington Park apartment where Escamilla lives alone, his friends among the coffee-drinking regulars said he is a chronic insomniac who often takes late-night strolls and drives.

“He’s a grandfather-type to a lot of people,” said Lucky Shackelford, 70, a former co-worker. “That he would offer a couple of young girls a ride in the middle of the night doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Escamilla said he knew he had made a mistake as soon as the girls got in the car.

“One of them says, ‘You want a date?’ and I said, ‘Hell no, I’m too damn old for that kind of thing.’ ”

As he stopped to let them out, Escamilla said, Gonzales demanded his money and car keys. When he refused to give them up, he said, she pulled a pistol from her clothing and shot him. He managed to drive to his apartment, where a neighbor took him to the hospital.