Slain Man Was Active in Suicide Prevention : Crime: The victim of an apparent robbery had ‘saved hundreds’ of people’s lives as a counselor at Crystal Cathedral, says a longtime acquaintance.

A man shot to death in an apparent street robbery had helped save lives as a counselor for a suicide prevention hot line at Crystal Cathedral, where he also was a member, friends said Thursday.

David P. Marshall, 51, of Santa Ana was shot Tuesday about 9 p.m. as he was parking a limousine in a commercial parking lot next to his girlfriend’s apartment in Anaheim. He had been driving the limousine part time to subsidize his income as a self-employed financial consultant.

Police have no suspects in the attack, which took place in the 100 block of South Magnolia Avenue.

Marshall’s girlfriend, Trisha Brick, 45, learned of the incident when she happened to go to the apartment complex’s trash bin and saw paramedics on the other side of the fence.

“I looked up because there was a fire engine there, and I saw the limo,” Brick said. “Then I realized that was him lying on the ground next to it in a pool of blood.”

Marshall died shortly afterward of a single gunshot wound in his chest at the West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, police said.

“I’m angry, disappointed, devastated,” said Brick, who met Marshall five years ago through business and who is also training to be a suicide-prevention counselor for the hot line. “Here they eliminated someone who was so buoyant, helpful and enthusiastic about life. There had been lots of things he wanted to do.”

One of those goals was to organize a business fair in India, where he was born to missionary parents. His parents sent him home to school in the United States when he was 16, said Chris Wirges, 39, one of Marshall’s clients for five years.

“David was always talking about returning to India to help improve the lives of people there,” he said.

Wirges did not know of Marshall’s violent death until Thursday morning when he read the newspaper.

“His name just jumped out at me,” said Wirges, whom Marshall had been helping to start a company. “I couldn’t believe it. I’m sad and angry that society has come to a level where a life is taken so easily.”

He showed a blue ribbon stringing together five motivational messages that Marshall had given him. One card read: “To be successful, you need to be responsible.”

“This is the essence of David, he was always trying to help people,” Wirges said, looking at the cards.

His death “is frustrating to me because he has saved hundreds of people from taking their own lives. It’s horribly wrong when someone as nice as David is taken,” he said.

The Rev. James Kok said Marshall had worked at the 24-hour telephone hot line at Crystal Cathedral for 10 years.

He was the fourth counselor there to die in six months, Kok said. The others died of illness or accident.

“I’m angry at the person who just shot him down for a few dollars,” Kok said. “I’m sad about David. He loved life, an unassuming man but very engaging. He tended to be quite intellectual, and would talk philosophically to people.”

Marshall “was loved by everybody,” Brick said.

He is survived by his parents, two sisters, a son, a daughter and two stepdaughters.

A memorial service at Crystal Cathedral is planned for Saturday at 10 a.m.