Man Slain, Boy Taken in Custody Fight

A father who was apparently bent on gaining custody of his 3-year-old son broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home in Winnetka, ordered an accomplice to shoot the woman’s current boyfriend, and kidnaped the child, Los Angeles police said Saturday.

Detectives are searching for Jose Luis Barajas Lopez, 27, and two unidentified men who escaped with the boy in a dented Nissan Sentra after killing Jose Luis Rodriguez late Friday night.

The child’s mother, Matilda Medina, whom the gunman also fired at, was not injured, police said.

Authorities said Medina had obtained a restraining order against Lopez, and that the couple’s four-year relationship was filled with physical abuse. “We’re looking into the possibility that when she began dating another man, Lopez didn’t want to share the child anymore,” Detective Malena Heissel said.

The incident began about 11:50 p.m. when Medina awoke to find someone breaking the window of the front room of her Saticoy Street apartment, Heissel said. She watched as the man, whom she recognized as her ex-boyfriend, climbed into her apartment, then opened the door for a second man, who was armed with a pistol, police said.

Heissel said that Rodriguez, 32, was walking from the bedroom to investigate the noises when Lopez shouted to his companion, “Fire!”

The man shot Rodriguez in the chest and killed him, police said. As Medina ran out of the apartment, the man fired at her but missed, Heissel said.

Lopez carried the child out of the apartment, and the two men got in a car driven by a third man, Heissel said. As of late Saturday, police had been unable to locate Lopez or the child, whose name is Freddy Lopez.