Man Shot, Killed in His Car After Leaving Casino

A San Juan Capistrano man driving from a Gardena card club and carrying more than $3,500 in cash was shot and killed in his car early Monday morning, moments after he called police on his cellular telephone saying he feared that he would be attacked, police said.

Thomas Garvey Welsome, 51, was shot twice in the upper body at about 2:30 a.m. on a street in Torrance, police said. He died at Gardena Memorial Hospital shortly afterward.

Welsome and a 43-year-old woman, Set Thi McGuire, drove in separate cars from Gardena’s Normandie Casino to her apartment in the 17300 block of Yukon Avenue, Torrance Police Sgt. Ron Traber said. As they pulled to a stop near her home, two men approached McGuire’s car, police said.

McGuire, sitting in her car with the windows closed, saw one man point a gun at her, police said. Moments later, a second man approached her car, and then both men ran to the passenger side of Welsome’s car, Traber said.

When one of them fired into his car, Welsome tried to drive away, police said. His car rolled a short distance, hit a parked car and stopped.

Seconds later, police arrived and saw two men running from Welsome’s car. McGuire, who had fled, returned a few minutes later, police said.

Police found a gun at the scene but did not say whether they think it is the one used in the shooting.

Homicide investigators searched unsuccessfully for the assailants with a Sheriff’s Department helicopter and police dogs.

Investigators said they believe that robbery was the motive for the shooting, even though the gunmen apparently did not take any of the $3,600 that Welsome carried with him when he left the casino about 2 a.m.

“Maybe the shooting was just enough to panic the (robbers),” Traber said.

Police said McGuire thought the two men may have followed them from the Normandie Casino, where Welsome went two or three times a week to play pai gow poker, family members said. Police said that Welsome and McGuire had been at the club since about 8 p.m. Sunday and that he had lost about $7,000.

Before the 2:30 a.m. call to police, McGuire and Welsome had started to go to her apartment, but she had noticed some suspicious men, she said. McGuire honked her horn to alert Welsome, and the two drove several blocks north in their separate cars.

They then discussed whether to return to the Normandie Casino but decided to drive back to her apartment, she told officers later.

Welsome, who owned a collection agency in Carson for more than 10 years, “liked playing cards and hanging out with friends” at the Normandie Casino, said his son Tom, 24, who lives with his parents in San Juan Capistrano.

“It was his escape, I guess,” he said.

“He didn’t go to bet $5 or $10. But I don’t know if I could call him a high roller,” Tom Welsome said. “He may have been too flashy for his own good. Maybe these guys knew” how much money he had when he left the club.

Welsome “didn’t have any debts,” his son said. “He was meticulous about his finances.”