Deliveryman Is Killed at Office

One office supply deliveryman was shot and killed and another beaten Friday morning when they showed up to make a delivery at a Manhattan Beach office building and interrupted a sexual assault, authorities said.

The assailant, who initially eluded a Manhattan Beach police officer--was cornered in a nearby yard and taken into custody after being bitten by a Redondo Beach police dog, authorities said. He was later identified by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokeswoman as David I. Arisman, 48, a “parolee with a history of violence.”

The incident marked the sixth homicide in 18 months in Manhattan Beach--an unprecedented string of deaths in the upscale South Bay suburb.

“Not only do we not expect to see someone killed, but a violent rape and a murder? And in the morning? Three doors down from me? It’s very startling to say the least,” said Jay Furtado, 33, who described himself as an entertainer and producer.

“It left me with the feeling that Manhattan Beach isn’t as safe a community as I thought it was.”

Later he added, “Have you ever been in bad neighborhoods where the helicopters are buzzing all the time? That’s what it’s been like here all day. Gnarly.”

The incident Friday occurred at a business named Answers. According to neighbors on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Answers had only recently moved from Hermosa Beach. Other details about the company were not available.

About 11:50 a.m., a man entered the single-story gray building and began to sexually assault a 27-year-old female employee, sheriff’s deputies said.

Two Office Depot deliverymen arrived, apparently with supplies for the new site, deputies said.

The assailant shot a 29-year-old deliveryman in the abdomen and beat up the other, a 41-year-old man, sources said. The names of the victims were not available late Friday. Calls to Office Depot’s headquarters went unanswered.

Police, meanwhile, came upon the scene by happenstance. A parking control officer had noticed the Office Depot truck double-parked on busy Manhattan Beach Boulevard, and had summoned a police car, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

The police officer was “dealing with the parked truck when the [woman inside the building] started screaming,” the source said.

The assailant escaped through a back window. The police officer gave chase but could not catch the man and returned to the building to find the three victims inside, sources said. Each was bound with rope and duct tape, according to Deputy Angie Prewett, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.

Officers chased Arisman through the nearby neighborhood before he bitten by the police dog and caught, Prewett said. She said Arisman had two guns with him when he was arrested, one fitted with a silencer.

The spokeswoman said that Arisman was arrested in 1990 on charges that included sexual assault. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, she said, adding that he was paroled after five years but never reported to a parole officer.

Times correspondent Deborah Belgum contributed to this report.