L.A. Businessman Is Held in Shooting

Irvine police have arrested an Altadena businessman in connection with the attempted slaying of a pharmaceutical executive who was shot in the face by a masked man as he arrived for work, but detectives said a motive for the attack remains a mystery.

The arrest late Monday of 56-year-old Dino D’Saachs came less than 12 hours after a gunman shot James Patrick Riley, chief executive of Biofem Inc., in what one investigator called an attempted assassination.

D’Saachs was described by acquaintances as a devoted father and successful businessman who owns apartment houses and businesses near downtown Los Angeles.

“His job [as a tax consultant] was going well,” said tenant Consuelo Cervantes. “He’d been here for a long time and just opened a shop on the corner, a small marketplace, a week ago.”

Officials said that Riley had never received death threats and that detectives are considering several scenarios, including the possibility that the shooting was a botched hit. Nothing was taken during the attack, and the gunman said nothing before fleeing through a courtyard to a waiting gray van.

“We’re still developing the motive to see what his connection is to the victim, but there is a connection,” said Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato.

“A hit is a possibility,” he said, adding that other theories are also being explored. He declined to elaborate.

Riley’s assailant, dressed in black clothes, gloves and a ski mask, fired a single round from a low-caliber, semiautomatic weapon as the executive arrived at work around 10 a.m. Monday.

The bullet, police said, tore through both of Riley’s cheeks, entering one side and coming out the other, before lodging in a nearby wall. Though the weapon lacked power, detectives believe the round came within inches of killing the executive.

“It’s really only a mater of trajectory that he’s still alive,” said Irvine Police Sgt. Rick Handfield. “This, to me, was a pretty good attempt at assassinating [Riley].”

D’Saachs, who owns a van similar to one seen speeding away from the shooting, was taken into custody after bringing his vehicle to a Los Angeles auto repair shop to be spray-painted, Irvine investigators said.

Using a partial license plate of the getaway car, detectives traced their way to D’Saachs. The suspect, who is being held at the county’s Intake/Release Center, declined to speak with reporters.

Riley, 58, was treated at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Officials there declined to release information about his condition, but officials at Riley’s Irvine-based company said he was recovering.

“He’s doing well,” said Jean Leet, a company vice president. “He’s more concerned about how we’re all doing, whether we’re hanging in there, even though he’s the one who got shot in the face. That’s the type of man he is.”

Employees at the 6-year-old company were stunned by Monday’s shooting, she added.

“It’s all very shocking,” she said. “He’s a well-liked and respected man with lots of friends both inside and outside the industry. . . . You just want to chalk it up to his being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Leet said that D’Saachs never worked for Biofem and that she knows of no connection between him and the company. Biofem, she said, is finishing research on two products: a chemical suppository designed to protect women from venereal disease, and a bacterial treatment that would protect against certain stomach upsets.

D’Saachs, state records show, runs a tax consulting business just south of downtown Los Angeles. His wife, Anna, owns a beauty salon on the same block.

Tenants at D’Saachs’ Los Angeles property on San Pedro Street said they can’t believe their landlord would shoot anyone. Cervantes, who runs a tailoring business on the property, described D’Saachs as a father who worked hard to send his four daughters, now grown, through private school. His wife held weekly Bible study classes at the site.

“I think it’s a mistake,” Cervantes said. “Everybody here is surprised.”

A witness to the shooting told police that the gunman drove either a gray Ford Aerostar or a gray Chevy Astro van. The witness also remembered a partial license plate: either 2WR-552 or 2WR-522.

Detectives, Handfield said, combed through DMV records for all 52 possible combinations. Among the few leads was a 1989 Ford Aerostar with a license plate of 2WRH522. The registered owner was Anna D’Saachs.

Around 10 p.m., investigators arrested the businessman at his San Gabriel Valley home. D’Saachs, Handfield said, had left his van at an auto repair shop near his tax consulting business with instructions for it to be repainted.

Detectives intended late Tuesday to search D’Saachs’ home and business addresses for evidence that might link him to the attack.

Times staff writer Marc Ballon contributed to this report.