Friends Express Disbelief Over Stabbing of Couple

A steady stream of regular diners stopped by Sabatino’s Italian Restaurant and Bakery on Friday afternoon, though they knew the eatery would serve none of its much-loved comfort food.

They came to line the front of this casual neighborhood restaurant with flowers and candles in memory of its owner, Sabato “Sabby” Russo, and his wife, Eugenia, who were slain Wednesday in their home a few blocks away.

They came to express their near-disbelief that such a gruesome fate could befall such good people. And in the heart of a region whose sprawl is said to breed alienation, they remembered the 73-year-old couple as people who drew on the elemental forces of friendship and home-cooked food to create something like a true sense of community.

“They were just so nice,” said Ron Katt, 55, as he stared at the line of flowers near the restaurant’s locked doors. “It’s a tragic day for the community.”

Doran Cates, 50, a former football coach at Valley College, remembered the at-cost feasts the Russo family would provide the team twice a week during football season. He called the Russos “the best sponsors the football program ever had.

“You almost felt bad saying you were having an event that he’d help you out with, because he did so much, and he had so much other stuff going on,” he said.

Rhonda Munoz, 40, of Pacoima, drove up in her minivan to see if what she had read in the news was really true.

“Oh God--Sabby just filled the whole house with happiness,” said Munoz, a weekly customer. “He was just real sweet. He’d come to your table and sit with you while you ate. It’s a great loss.”

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Sabby Russo suffered a heart attack about 20 years ago. His heart doctor, Martin Bobrowsky, was outside the restaurant on Friday with his wife, Rena, looking for relatives and recalling what a hit Sabby had been for years at his cardiology clinic, where Russo regularly brought homemade cookies from the restaurant.

“He was sort of a dying breed,” Rena Bobrowsky said. “His friendship was much more European. If he was your friend, he’d do anything for you.”

As the flowers piled up outside, longtime chef Juan Jimenez was behind the locked doors taking care of practical odds and ends for the Russos’ survivors.

The family--daughter Rosanna Tolino and her husband, Antonio, as well as Sabby’s brother, Antonio Russo--plans to carry on the tradition, but they were busy making funeral arrangements and picking up relatives from Sabby Russo’s native Italy, Jimenez said.

Jimenez said the restaurant would eventually reopen. “[Sabby] always told me if anything happens, you keep it open,” he said.

Police have arrested a 22-year-old Sylmar man, Israel Cabrera, in connection with the slaying. Cabrera was part of a three-man work crew who installed a new wooden floor at the Russos’ house recently, authorities said. They say he came back alone Wednesday morning to commit the crime.

A number of the Russos’ personal effects were found in Cabrera’s home, as well as knives believed to be the murder weapons, police said.

Richard Ciera, 55, of Studio City, said the loss was widely felt.

“When you went in there, it was like family,” Ciera said. “Let me tell you, his food was great, and his family was great people. . . . The young man who killed them needs to know that he didn’t kill insignificant people.”

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The mood was somber at Anthony’s Barber and Hair Styling Salon across the street. Owner Anthony Palazzo, like Sabby Russo, is an Italian immigrant who made good in the States, and all of the old-school barbers in his place had nothing but good words for the restaurateur.

Barber Bill Carver said he didn’t understand how the perpetrator of the crime could have ever pulled a knife.

“From what I know about Sabby, if he knew the guy broke in, he would’ve sat him down and fed him,” he said.