Police Seek Suspect in Slaying of Guards

A day after two security guards were shot to death and two more critically wounded at a Compton housing complex, police spent Monday staking out a suspect’s parked Cadillac and raiding his nearby home and other places he often visits.

Just after Sunday’s predawn ambush, one of the wounded guards managed to give police enough information to identify a suspected shooter before the guard’s condition deteriorated, said Compton Police Lt. Danny Sneed.

The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, also is wanted in connection with a gang-related shooting in October. Investigators kept close watch Monday on the mint-green, 1981 Cadillac he left near the housing complex and fanned out to inspect other places where he may have taken refuge.

“We have five detective teams hitting all the locations that he’s known to frequent,” Sneed said.

Meanwhile, officials at King/Drew Medical Center upgraded the condition of one of the wounded security guards, Rodolso Bombarda, 52, from critical to stable. But Saul Connor Martinez, 59, remained in critical condition with a head wound.

Martinez’s son, Alfredo Connor, 38, said he had urged his father to quit his security job at the New Wilmington Arms, which his father had held for more than three years.

“None of the guards wanted to work there,” he said. “It is a terrible place, and many of them quit after just a while. But my father refused to quit. He believed that someone had to be there to make sure the people living there had a good chance at life.”

At least one guard disputed Connor’s view of the complex, saying crime had fallen after the property changed hands about three years ago.

“It’s been pretty smooth sailing since I’ve been here,” said Leroy Smith, who has patrolled the complex for about a year. “A lot of tenants talk about what it used to be like. It’s got to the point where some were calling it paradise.”

At the housing complex on Monday, burning candles flickered in the breeze outside the guard house. Colleagues and residents lovingly recalled the two men who were slain in the attack: Roderico Paz, 62, and Remigio Malinao, 49.

“I was shocked to my knees,” said Madeline Herring, who has lived in the complex for more than a year. “The guards were always sweet and nice to me. It hurts me to my heart what happened to them.”

The events that led to the attack began early Sunday morning, just after midnight, when a man who frequented the housing complex but did not live there tried to enter, according to security guard Smith.

One of the guards, Paz, who had started working at the complex only months earlier, failed to recognize the man and refused to open the electronic security gates for him, Smith said. A heated argument developed before the man left. He returned later with some friends, whom guards recognized and allowed into the complex, Smith said.

According to police, the suspect returned to the security guard cabin around 5:25 a.m. and began shooting. Police said they believe that the guards, who were armed, never had a chance to return fire.

It was the work of security guards that earned much of the credit from residents for the cleanup of the New Wilmington Arms. A decade ago, the 164-unit complex was so drug-infested that Compton officials dubbed it a public nuisance. One councilman suggested that it be demolished.

“It used to be rowdy--a lot of loud music and fighting,” said Regina Hunt, who has lived at the complex for 10 years. “It’s real quiet now, though. They cleaned it up. It’s real nice.”

Hunt worried that the incident would unfairly damage the complex’s already fragile reputation and that of its residents, all of whom depend to some degree on public assistance.

As she spoke, Hunt stood outside a friend’s apartment while neighbors sat in lawn chairs with their infants talking about Monday’s shooting. Rae Hardy complained that the killings had disturbed her 11-year-old son, who “was afraid to go to school this morning.”

As the women chatted, children on bicycles darted between well-scrubbed apartment buildings and across close-cropped lawns. Tyonne Sholes, 19, walked her 5-month-old daughter across the complex.

The suspect, Sholes noted, was an outsider visiting the complex, not a resident. And the guards were shot for only doing their job--trying to keep unwanted intruders out, she said.

“They’re here for our protection,” she said. “If they weren’t here, this complex would be messed up. I’d be scared for all the little kids.”