Woman Killed in Restaurant Shooting Is Identified

Sheriff’s homicide detectives on Wednesday identified Monique Bray, 42, of Inglewood as the slain victim in a shooting rampage in which an enraged husband also allegedly wounded his wife and a security guard at a popular Windsor Hills restaurant.

Bray was shot to death in the parking lot of the La Louisanne as she and the suspect’s wife tried to leave about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Martin.

Authorities say Alvin Turner, 42, killed Bray with a shotgun as she sat in the driver’s seat of her car.

Turner is alleged to have then trained his shotgun on his wife, Malinda Bray, 46, who was in the car when the shooting started but who quickly ran into the restaurant.

Turner followed his wife into the restaurant, shooting her in the torso in front of about 20 onlookers, detectives said.

Security guard John Dunn, 56, of Inglewood, was shot in the leg inside the restaurant.

Although detectives originally thought the two women were sisters, they were sisters-in-law who had been close friends since their teenage years, the wounded woman’s mother said. Monique Bray was married to Malinda Bray’s brother.

Georgia Bray-Gilliam of Compton said that her daughter and the suspect had a history of marital trouble and that Malinda Bray filed for divorce last year. Though separated, the two were trying to salvage their relationship, even going out on a “romantic dinner,” Saturday, Malinda Bray’s mother said.

They even worked together, with Malinda Bray continuing to work as an administrator for a Compton trucking company the two started together about 11 years ago.

Bray-Gilliam also had a close bond with Turner. She said that she often counseled him on his marital problems.

“We prayed together on the phone just about every day,” she said. “He even called me Mother.”

On Monday night, she got a troubling call from Malinda Bray at the restaurant. Turner had appeared unexpectedly and caused such a ruckus that he was being kicked out. “He was shouting, ‘You’re my wife ‘til death do us part,’ ” Bray-Gilliam said.

About an hour later, she said, he called her and left a message: “I love you, Mother.” Soon afterward, Turner is alleged to have started the shooting spree.

Bray-Gilliam said her daughter, shot in the arm and upper body, had “raised her hands in front of her face; that’s what saved her. He had no mercy for my daughter, now I have no mercy for him.”

As authorities looked for Turner on Tuesday, he again called Bray-Gilliam and left a message, she said. He said he had become angry because “they threw me out of the club like I was a dog.”

Turner surrendered at the Marina del Rey sheriff’s station Tuesday afternoon. He will be arraigned today, authorities said.

Malinda Bray was in critical condition at a local hospital, her mother said. Dunn was in stable condition, according to the Sheriff’s Department.