Owner of Pasadena Market Killed in Robbery

The popular owner of a Pasadena market and restaurant was shot and killed by robbers Monday morning as she and her husband arrived at their business.

Olivia De La Torre, 39, was shot several times in the head as she struggled with an attacker in the parking lot just after 7 a.m. A second man robbed her husband but didn’t injure him, said police Lt. Keith Jones.

The couple had just stepped out of their car at 2023 N. Fair Oaks Ave. when two men armed with handguns approached. She was carrying a bag of cash, family members said. Her husband, Jacinto, was forced to the ground with a gun to his head, and and then heard the gunshots.

Olivia De La Torre died at Huntington Hospital in the afternoon.

Her son, Juan De La Torre, 21, said the killers must have been waiting for the couple to arrive. They escaped with the bag of money, relatives said.

“They knew exactly what time to be there,” he said. “They were spying on them.”

The men “killed part of my life,” he said. “I would prefer to die instead of her. She was so full of life.”

The De La Torres are well-known in the neglected northwest Pasadena area, where neighbors rely on the couple’s colorful storefront meat market and restaurant, La Guadalupana. Throughout the day, people brought flowers and votive candles to their doorstep.

The family was from Poncitlan, in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, and had lived in the Pasadena area for more than 18 years.

They have six children who attended Pasadena schools, and many relatives and friends in the area who came from Jalisco.

“Everyone here in Pasadena who is Latino knows them,” said Martin Garcia, who is from their hometown. “She was a just a great person.”

The brothers and sisters all work in the store and adjacent restaurant to make it successful, family members said.

“I had my own landscaping business,” Juan De La Torre said. “But we sold it and dedicated ourselves to the restaurant.”

Other relatives own the Poncitlan Carniceria a few blocks away.

As Garcia stood at their storefront Monday afternoon, a man waiting at the bus stop asked what had happened.

“Oh no, no, no,” the man replied. “These were good people.”

At the De La Torres’ home, where people gathered Monday evening, the siblings grieved and awaited their maternal grandmother, who had been scheduled to arrive from Mexico on her first visit to California.

“It’s really sad,” said Juan, “because when she gets here for the first time, she’s going to find her daughter dead.”

Police said the killers fled in a compact car, which was recovered a few blocks away. They were described only as Latino men, one between 25 and 30 years old, the other older.