Guard Kills Man at Pacoima Restaurant

A security guard shot and killed a man at a Pacoima Burger King after an argument escalated over a drive-through order, police said Thursday.

Clifton Chester, 22, pointed a pistol at the security guard before the guard shot him Wednesday night, according to the guard and several witnesses, police said. But others among the dozen witnesses interviewed by police said they did not see a gun in Chester’s hands.

A bullet-sized hole was found in one of the restaurant’s windows, which several employees said was the result of someone in Chester’s party firing a gun shortly before the fatal shooting, according to LAPD Lt. George Rock.

No arrests have been made and many questions remain, Rock said. No weapon was found near the restaurant, and no casings or shells were found near the window, Rock said.

The sequence of events began when Chester and two other young men pulled up to the restaurant in the 12700 block of Van Nuys Boulevard in two cars and ordered dinner at the drive-through window around 10 p.m., Rock said. A dispute ensued, Rock said, “over change or the wrong food.”

The three men then entered the restaurant and argued with employees. They were escorted out by the security guard, who then locked the front doors, Rock said.

The men then apparently walked to the side of the restaurant, Rock said. Soon after, employees said they heard a loud bang and noticed the hole in the store window, he said.

“Several [employees] yelled, ‘They’ve got a gun,’ and everybody hit the deck,” Rock said.

The security guard, whose name was not released, called 911 when he saw that the men had returned to the front doors and were pulling on them violently. When the guard saw one of them with what he thought was a gun, he fired three shots, hitting Chester once in the head, police said.

Chester died at Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley, where his brother Jeremiah drove him after he was shot, police said. Investigators found two guns in the trunk of the car at the hospital, Rock said, but they were packed up in such a way that police do not believe either weapon was carried into the restaurant.

“Although no evidence corroborated that a gun was used to shoot through the window, at the same point that can’t be eliminated,” Rock said.

The guard, who is licensed by the state to carry a firearm, works for a private security firm contracted by the franchise, according to police and a Burger King spokeswoman. The name of the firm was not released.

Clifton “Tuby” Chester grew up in Pacoima and was a regular at the restaurant, relatives said. He was unemployed, collecting disability, and was the father of a 1-year-old girl.

“He’s not the type of person who carries a gun,” said his cousin, Margaret Yancy. “They murdered him for no reason.”

The shooting is the second at an eatery on the block since April, when an 18-year-old man was shot twice in the back at a nearby Taco Bell.

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Times staff writer Noaki Schwartz contributed to this article.