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Oceanside

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A 47-year-old restaurant employee was shot to death Thursday during an early-morning robbery attempt in Oceanside, police said.

Lucio de la Torre was shot shortly after 2 a.m. by two masked men, who forced their way into Alberto’s Mexican Food in the 1800 block of Mission Avenue, a police spokesman said. The men ordered De la Torre to open the cash register at gunpoint, but when the restaurant worker was unable to open the register quickly enough, he was shot at close range.

The killers apparently fled north on foot through a field behind the restaurant, a police spokesman said. During the attempted robbery, De la Torre was unarmed and offered no resistance, police said.

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No money was taken, and a second person who was at the restaurant at the time of the shooting was unharmed, police said.

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