Shooting Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Hurt

A man who may have been motivated by jealousy opened fire Wednesday in a Los Angeles garment business, wounding his wife and killing one of her male co-workers as they sewed, police said.

Jesus Rivas, 38, then ran from the building and fled in a red Toyota pickup, authorities said. He remained at large Wednesday night.

Police said Rivas took a freight elevator to the sixth-floor business at 8th and San Julian streets about 4 p.m., approached the man and shot him in the head.

Rivas then walked across the office and shot his wife in the lower torso, police said, before dropping his gun and fleeing down the stairs.

One of about 20 employees on the floor, most of them women, said she saw the killer shoot the man.

“I didn’t wait. I just ran out as fast as I could down the stairs,” she said.

The male victim, who has not been identified, died at County-USC Medical Center an hour later. The woman was in stable condition, and her wounds were not life-threatening, authorities said.

Los Angeles Police Officer Lucy Diaz said homicide detectives are investigating the possibility that Rivas’ wife and her co-worker were having a relationship and that Rivas was jealous.

Police said the license plate number of the pickup in which the killer fled is 4S28983.

Alfonso Perez Prado, 52, who was on the first floor when the shooting occurred, said: “It was loud. I thought some wooden pallets fell. I never imagined someone was being shot up there.”