Guard Hit by Car in Attempted Robbery

A 65-year-old security guard was clinging to life late Thursday after being hit by a car driven by one of two would-be robbers outside a Stanton market.

Ramiro Torres had drawn his gun on one of the robbers late Wednesday when his alleged accomplice rammed Torres with a car, sending him flying 40 feet and causing massive head injuries and broken limbs.

Witnesses and police said Torres was trying to protect the Bestway Supermarket’s owner and clerk, who were being accosted by the first robber, who wore a black hockey mask.

Two brothers from Anaheim, David Villalobos, 19, and Marco Villalobos, 23, were later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted robbery, said Orange County Sheriff’s Investigator Steve Doan.

Torres’ wife, Maria Ramirez, speaking by phone from Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, described him as a hard-working man.

“He doesn’t have any vices, he doesn’t smoke, he does nothing but work,” she said.

Torres came to the United States from the Mexican state of Michoacan about 30 years ago. Before going into security, he worked as a gardener, his wife said. He has three grown children in East Los Angeles and El Monte, she said.

Co-workers described Torres as a dedicated security guard who always tries to help people.

“He loved his work,” said Eustorgio Penaloza, who worked at the same small security service in Lynwood. Torres, who lives in Compton, had worked in security for at least five years.

Although Torres, at 5 feet, 7 inches, is not a big man, he is a solid 180 pounds who didn’t fret much about the dangers of the job, Penaloza said.

Torres had been at Bestway Supermarket, in Magnolia Plaza at Magnolia and Cerritos avenues, only about a month and worked the 4-to-11 p.m. shift a couple of days a week, said Rick Compean, the store’s director. Torres was hired to keep the parking lot clear of loiterers and to protect the store from theft, Compean said.

“He was friendly and good with the customers,” Compean said. “He could be anybody’s grandfather.”

Despite the crime, police say Bestway Supermarket is in a generally safe neighborhood with few violent crimes. The store had not been robbed in the recent past, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The events leading up to the attack on Torres began at 11:30 p.m.

After closing up for the night, market night manager Julio Barrios was going to give an unidentified store clerk a ride home. Before the clerk reached his car, Barrios saw in his mirror a man wearing a hockey mask and gloves approaching the car, Amormino said. Barrios locked the doors before the clerk could get in.

The masked man began pounding on the driver’s side window, trying to break it. Barrios then drove off, with the would-be robber chasing him through the store parking lot. At some point, the man chasing Barrios tripped on a tree stump in a planter. Torres ran over to him and held him at gunpoint, Doan said. Deputies said Torres never saw the early 1980s Oldsmobile Cutlass bearing down on him at about 30 mph before it plowed into him.

The two men then fled east on Cerritos Avenue. Barrios picked up the clerk and briefly followed the two men before realizing that a sheriff’s patrol car was already in pursuit. When Barrios returned to the store parking lot, he found Torres lying on the ground, Doan said.

In the meantime, Anaheim and sheriff’s deputies pursued the getaway car, which crashed into several vehicles. A helicopter and police dogs were called in to help search for the two men, Doan said. They were captured about a half an hour after Torres was run down.