Brothers Shot, 1 Fatally, by Wounded Club Guard

His right shoe filled with blood from a painful thigh wound, a 26-year-old security guard twice emptied his service revolver in a wild gun battle with two downtown bar patrons Wednesday night, killing one and critically wounding the dead man’s brother.

Nursing bullet wounds to his leg and left buttock, Miguel Angel Alvarez said Thursday from his hospital bed that he is “very lucky to be alive” after the 11:30 p.m. incident outside La Taverna at 727 N. Anaheim Blvd.

The dead man was identified by police as Iresbids Pastor Maradiaga, 28, who authorities said worked as a security guard himself at a local Mexican restaurant.

Maradiaga was reportedly shot several times in the chest. His brother, Omar Pastor Maradiaga, 24, was in critical condition Thursday at UCI Medical Center in Orange with multiple gunshot wounds in the stomach, police and hospital officials said.

“It was like I was watching somebody else,” Alvarez said of his actions during the shooting. “The whole night I have been going through the whole thing, thinking if I could have done something to prevent this.”

Alvarez said the confrontation was apparently sparked by events earlier in the evening when Iresbids Maradiaga became rowdy inside the nightclub. Alvarez said that he asked the man to calm himself and that when he did not, he told him that club owners would no longer serve him.

“I approached him and asked him to keep it down a little bit,” Alvarez said. “He took it offensively. He was not talking respectfully.”

Alvarez said that later the man, describing himself as a fellow security guard, attempted to apologize. But Alvarez said the man was again informed that he would not be served for the rest of the night.

Alvarez said Maradiaga then left the club but returned about five minutes later with a gun.

When he went to the door to see why the man had returned, Alvarez said the man pointed a gun at him.

“I told him not to do it,” Alvarez said. “I told him three times to drop the gun.”

At one point during the standoff, Alvarez said Maradiaga opened his arms with the gun dangling from his right hand, before again fixing the barrel on the guard’s chest.

“I shot first, and he went back 3 or 4 feet, then he fired back two or three rounds,” Alvarez said of the exchange from point-blank range. In the return fire, Alvarez said, he was hit in the thigh.

Alvarez said he was reloading his .357 magnum handgun when the man’s brother came outside, where he reportedly picked up his brother’s .38-caliber weapon and began firing. Hit in the buttock, Alvarez again opened fire, he said, wounding Omar Pastor Maradiaga several times.

“I really didn’t have time to think,” the guard said. “In less than two minutes it happened. When (Iresbids Maradiaga) pointed the gun at me, I was hoping he would drop it, (but) then I wanted to be quicker and more accurate than he was.”

Anaheim Police Lt. John Cross said no charges had been filed in the case, adding that statements from the 15 other bar customers still had to be examined.

“As far as I know, he asked the guy to leave because he was being obnoxious in the bar,” Cross said. “That’s basically the way it went down. Apparently, the victim had enough to drink, and he was apparently not going to let the fact that he would have to leave die with him.”

Cross said no decision had been made about Alvarez’s responsibility in the matter.

“We have a good number of people to interview,” the lieutenant said. “When you have that many people involved, not everybody sees things the same way. It takes some sorting out.”

According to officials with the state Bureau of Collection and Investigative Services, the agency that maintains registration records for security guards, Alvarez has a valid registration card and is licensed to carry a firearm.