Salesman Found Dead in Car After Helping Man

A 29-year-old computer salesman who was shot dead in his car had given a ride minutes earlier to a man who told him that his truck had broken down, authorities said Wednesday.

Police found Oscar William Torres of Torrance shot several times in the head and slumped over in the driver’s seat of his car Tuesday night, investigators said.

The vehicle was left parked in the intersection of Bassett Street and Minstrel Avenue, about half a block north of Fallbrook Mall, where Torres worked, police said. The engine was running and the wiper blades were on, Los Angeles Police Detective Rick Swanston said.

About 9:15 p.m. Tuesday as Torres left work at L. A. Tronics, an electronics and computer store, a man approached him in the mall’s parking lot and complained that his truck had broken down, police and employees said.

Torres agreed to help the man by giving him a lift, employees said.

“We don’t know if he was going to give him a ride to a gas station or what,” Swanston said. The vehicle the man complained about was a red pickup truck.

About 9:35 p.m., neighbors in the residential area near the mall heard several gunshots, noticed the car in the intersection and called police, Swanston said.

“Nobody saw anything, no one running away, nothing,” he said.

Carol Frisby, Torres’ manager, said she had persuaded Torres to transfer to the Fallbrook branch of the electronics chain from a location in Torrance about two weeks ago so he could become a full-time assistant manager.

“He was probably one of the nicest people anybody would ever know,” said Frisby, who had also worked with him for six years at the Torrance store. “He would do anything for anyone. And that’s why it happened; he was trying to help someone. He’s a good person . . . didn’t have an enemy in the world.”

Police are looking for a man who had gotten the ride from Torres. The truck has not been found.