2 Security Guards Die in Compton

Two security guards were killed and two others critically wounded in an early-morning shooting Sunday at a housing complex in Compton known for its efforts to stem crime and provide residents with a safe environment.

The gunplay, involving what Compton police said probably was a single assailant, occurred at a guardhouse where security officers monitor vehicular traffic into the New Wilmington Arms, a more than 160-unit, privately owned development with about 600 residents.

A 12-foot-high iron fence surrounds the 11-acre complex of stucco buildings and well-kept lawns.

Lt. Danny Sneed, a Compton police spokesman, said witnesses told police that the shooter had argued with at least one guard earlier during the night and then came back and opened fire unexpectedly shortly after 5 a.m.

Sneed said one of the wounded security officers, before being taken to the hospital, was able to give a few details of what had happened and a description of the suspect, who drove away and remained at large Sunday night.

Sneed said he was uncertain whether any of the guards fired their guns at the suspect. Handguns belonging to the guards were found at the scene, but no gun belonging to the suspect was found, he said.

He added that the suspect may frequent the complex, although it was not clear if he lives there.

Compton police identified one dead guard as Remigio Malinao, 49, and the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said the other was Roderico Paz, 62. The wounded, who underwent surgery at Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center, are Saul Connor Martinez, 59, and Rodolso Bombarda, 52, authorities said.

Relatives of the guards gathered at the hospital, several of them saying that they had worried for some time about the safety of their loved ones.

Alfredo Connor, son of Saul Connor Martinez, said his father insisted that he needed the money. He lay unconscious in a hospital bed Sunday, his head swollen with a massive open wound behind his ear.

“I never dreamed of coming to a place and seeing my father like this,” said Alfredo, 38. “I didn’t even recognize him. Lying there for some miserable-paying job.”

He said doctors told him that if his father survived, he would be brain-dead.

Merle Malinao was trembling and sobbing when she was told the father of her 4-year-old boy was dead.

“We were dreaming of buying a house this year,” Merle Malinao said. “I was planning a birthday party for him.”

Before Remigio Malinao went to work Saturday night, he was excited about a trip to see his mother in the Philippines. His wife was sick and asked him to stay home, but he promised to be back early in the morning.

“I told him to quit. It was just a part-time job,” she said, crumpled over and crying in a waiting room chair.

Malinao had a full-time day job and was working extra to buy a house and put his son through school. He had quit the job once before because of the risks, but returned to save extra money.

Sneed said all the victims worked for the Torrance office of International Total Services, which is headquartered in Cleveland.

All four were either inside or beside the guardhouse at 700 W. Laurel St. when the shooting occurred.

At midmorning, a crowd of residents stood inside the complex watching the police at the crime scene. One of the dead guards remained underneath a sheet near the guardhouse. The other slain guard died after being taken to the hospital.

A man who would identify himself only as ‘Dean” said that the shooter was “probably a person who lived here” and that a number of residents “feel pretty sure they know who did this.”

He added that security at the complex was plentiful, “but they didn’t have enough protection for the guards.”

No others wanted to talk much about what had happened or give their names. One woman lamented that, “This is not going to be good for this place’s reputation.”

Across the street, a man and a woman looking over the wall from another housing complex said there had been occasional security trouble at the New Wilmington Arms.

Arms residents said the complex manager was not working Sunday.

A sign dated Dec. 23 was posted under a gazebo a few yards inside the development from the guardhouse announcing that a job fair would soon be held for people desiring to join the security staff.

Also posted was an elaborate entry procedure for visitors. In the posting the guards were referred to as “Courtesy officers.”

“If the resident is not home and/or is denied entrance, the Courtesy officers must tell the visitor, ‘I cannot allow you entrance at this time.’ The visitor then will be expected to leave,” the posting said in part.

Nearly four years ago, police were quoted as saying new security efforts at the complex had succeeded in drastically curtailing drug dealing and other crimes there.

In a Times report of March 23, 1995, featuring the complex, a guard, Watkin Garcia, was quoted as saying, “Now, it’s like a walk in the park. This is like a vacation from the way it used to be. . . . It was like Vietnam down here.”

The landscape, once marked with trash, was cleaned up and planted with flowers and shrubs, and children played ball on a grassy stretch that used to be a dirt lot, the report said. There were frequent social activities held at the complex.