Tavern Guard Fatally Shot; 2 Men Held

An unarmed security guard at a neighborhood bar in Panorama City was fatally shot at close range early Saturday in apparent retaliation for bouncing one of the two suspects from the tavern three weeks earlier, police said.

The two suspects were arrested by a nearby patrol officer, police said, adding that Samuel Villanueva, a 34-year-old father of two, was attacked so swiftly he didn’t even have time to raise a hand in self-defense.

“It’s a real tragedy,” said Los Angeles Police Det. Stephen Fisk of the Van Nuys Division. “This guy’s working and along comes this hotheaded jerk and blows him away.”

Witnesses told police that one of the men taken into custody in connection with the shooting, Mario Balderrama, 24, of Panorama City, had been kicked out of the Trophy Room in the 14400 block of Titus Street for unruly behavior. Villanueva had helped the bartender eject Balderrama from the building, Fisk said.

Villanueva was working the door again early Saturday when Balderrama and another man, Carlos Fuentes, 29, also of Panorama City, allegedly pulled in front of the bar in their car, police said. As Fuentes waited, Balderrama allegedly walked up to the entrance, waited to be let in and shot the security guard twice as he opened the door, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Balderrama and Fuentes are being held in the Van Nuys jail on suspicion of murder.

Villanueva was a native of Veracruz, Mexico, who worked more than one job to support his wife and two children, a 4-year-old daughter and 18-month-old son.