Man Held in Car Theft That Led to Motel Manager’s Death

A 34-year-old transient was arrested Monday on suspicion of stealing a car Sunday from a Pacoima motel manager who was then killed by a passing car as he chased the thief.

Albert Cavazos, who was living at the Villa Las Palmas motel on San Fernando Road, was being held on suspicion of murder, but it will be up to the district attorney’s office to decide what charges will be filed against him, said Det. Lindy Gligorijevic of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division.

The incident began Sunday evening, when a man attempted to steal a 1987 Buick Skylark belonging to DiZhong Song, 61, manager of the motel.

The thief reportedly left after the car’s engine failed to start and Song confronted him. At about 9:30 p.m., however, as Song was preparing to leave the motel, he ran back into the building, leaving his car’s engine running.

Although “Mr. Song was very close to his car,” police said the thief, lurking nearby, jumped in and stole it. Song then reportedly ran into the street to flag down a taxi to give chase and was hit by another car.

“The other thing that makes this such a tragedy is [Song’s] wife witnessed his death,” said Gligorijevic. She said the family lives at the motel that he managed.

Gligorijevic said the investigation was aided by the fact that Cavazos, whom she described as a transient, “has an extensive narcotics background [and] was known to our narcotics officers.” When an officer assisting in the initial crime report got a partial name of the suspect from a witness, police went to one of the locations where “he had been seen in the past” and arrested him, she said.

James Collins Jr. of Pacoima, driver of the car that hit Song, will not be charged. “There was no wrongdoing on his part,” Gligorijevic said.