Vendor’s Attempt at a Better Life Ends With Slaying

Work was all Oscar Palacios wanted when he came to Los Angeles from Puebla, Mexico.

He found it as an ice cream vendor in South-Central Los Angeles, but his earnings were so low, friends say, that he had to live out of the ice cream truck he rented.

He understood the dangers of the street and knew people who had been killed. But he was self-employed, and life was better here than in Mexico.

Palacios’ efforts to better himself ended when he was killed Monday by two alleged gang members in an apparent robbery at 42nd Place and Central Avenue, police said.

Palacios, described by community members and business associates as a humble, hard-working man, was shot inside his ice cream truck during a struggle with two men about 2 p.m., then got out of the truck and collapsed in the street, said Detective J.D. Furr. Palacios was pronounced dead at County USC Medical Center about 30 minutes later.

Police have two suspects in custody: Eddie Hilbert, 25, and a 16-year-old whose name was not released because he is a juvenile.

Other ice cream vendors who work the area said it is becoming increasing dangerous to be a street vendor in Los Angeles.

“We all know that we are vulnerable,” said Salvador Manriquez, 26, from the Eastside. “The fear is always with us.”

Palacios slept in his truck in the parking lot of Alborz International, a soda wholesaler on Central Avenue. The store’s owner, Mauricio Funef, said Palacios “was the kind of person who just came and did his job. God knows why anyone would do that to him.”