Santa Clarita Man Booked in Romantic Rival’s Slaying : Crime: Police say a 29-year-old Fallbrook Mall computer salesman was killed after he began dating a woman Jorge Luis Pitto had been seeing.

The suspect in the slaying of a Torrance man, described by police as a romantic rival, turned himself in to police and was booked on suspicion of murder, authorities said Monday.

Jorge Luis Pitto, 28, of Santa Clarita turned himself in to police at the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley station Saturday, Lt. George Rock said.

Earlier in the week, police identified Pitto as the prime suspect in the Tuesday night shooting of Oscar William Torres, who worked as a computer salesman at L. A. Tronics, an electronics store in Fallbrook Mall, Rock said.

Police believe that Pitto targeted Torres after the 29-year-old man began dating a woman who had recently been going out with Pitto, Rock said.

On the night of the slaying, Pitto parked his car near Torres’ vehicle and waited for him to leave work, Rock said. As Torres came out of the mall, Pitto approached him on the pretense that he was having car trouble, Rock said.

He apparently persuaded Torres to help him because a witness told police the men left the parking lot together in Torres’ car, Rock said.

About 15 minutes after Torres left work, residents told police that they heard shots and saw a car parked but still running in the intersection of Bassett Street and Minstrel Avenue, Rock said.

Police found Torres slumped over the wheel with a single gunshot wound to the head, Rock said. Police recovered a handgun they believe is the murder weapon, he added.

Carol Frisby, a co-worker of Torres’, said Torres was one the “nicest people anybody would ever know,” describing him as a friendly, helpful man.

“He would do anything for anyone, and that’s why it happened; he was trying to help someone,” Frisby said a day after the killing.

Frisby and Torres had worked together at the Torrance store, and Torres had transferred just two weeks earlier, accepting an assistant manager’s position at the Fallbrook Mall store.