Gunman Fatally Shoots Anaheim Man, 61

A gunman stepped from a car, walked up to a 61-year-old man standing outside an apartment building with friends, and shot him repeatedly in the upper body, police said Wednesday.

Felipe Benavidez, an unemployed carpenter who lived in the complex at 629 W. Vermont Ave., died a short time after the shooting at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Police Sgt. Chet Barry said.

Police said the killer obviously targeted Benavidez deliberately, but they don’t know why.

There were no words between the gunman and the victim and no attempt to rob him or his friends, Barry said. Nor does the killing appear gang-related, he said.

“We feel pretty confident (Benavidez) was targeted, but we really don’t know why,” Barry said. “We’re digging into it.”

The apartment complex has about 100 units and is in a low-income section of the city between Harbor Boulevard and the Santa Ana Freeway.

Benavidez lived in a sparsely furnished apartment with his three sons and two daughters. His wife is in Mexico City, the family said.

One son said they have no idea why their father was killed.

“We just don’t know what happened,” Miguel Angel Benavidez, 22, said.

Barry said witnesses to the shooting could only vaguely describe the assailant as a middle-aged man and were unable to agree on whether there were two or three people in the car with him. The car was described as American-made and full-sized.

Benavidez died at Western Medical Center-Anaheim, Sgt. Barry said.