El Torito Restaurants Offer $10,000 Reward for 2 Killers
While Oceanside police continue to try to identify two masked and gloved bandits who slashed and killed the manager of an El Torito restaurant in Oceanside early Wednesday morning, the restaurant chain announced a $10,000 reward Friday for information leading to the conviction of the slayers.
Oceanside Police Department investigator Bob George said that crime data is being searched to try to link the pair with similar robbery-slayings in California and surrounding states.
George said that another Oceanside restaurant was robbed by ski-masked bandits less than 12 hours after the El Torito robbery. At the Red Dragon restaurant on Oceanside Boulevard, a lone robber carrying a semi-automatic pistol and wearing a ski mask and gloves, escaped with an estimated $500 late Wednesday night. No one was harmed.
At the El Torito robbery, two men wearing ski masks and gloves entered the restaurant after closing hour through an unlocked door and accosted restaurant manager David Taber, 36, in his office. Taber was tied up and stabbed to death in what George said, “was the most brutal murder I’ve seen during my 20 years as a cop and eight years working homicide.”
Two El Torito janitors, tied up and slashed by bandits, were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released.
Police said anyone having information on the El Torito robbery and killing should call the Oceanside Police Department at 966-4901.
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