Two Slain Brothers Head Home to Mexico

Javier and Salvador Parra, brothers who lived and worked together, and died together in a puzzling shooting last week, were remembered Friday night at a wake. The brothers’ bodies will be sent Monday to their hometown near Acapulco, Mexico.

They will be buried in the municipal cemetery in Acapulco after a viewing at a local funeral home. Money to send them home came from a state program that provides victims of crime with funeral benefits.

“In life, they were always together. The family wanted them in death to be together,” said Omar Gallarzo, director of Funeraria Latina Familiar in Santa Ana, which organized Friday’s wake and rosary. About 200 people, mostly restaurant co-workers, attended the service in Santa Ana, just miles from where the men were shot Feb. 1.

They died the next day.

Javier, 36, a dishwasher, and Salvador, 32, a cook, had just left their jobs at Hometown Buffet and were in their car about 11 p.m. when they were shot in the restaurant parking lot at 17th Street and East Lincoln Avenue, witnesses said.

Their Ford Mustang coasted through the lot and hit a tree.

Police said the men’s deaths were not related to gangs or drugs. Co-workers said robbery does not appear to have been a motive either; neither man’s wallet was taken.

“In cases like this anything is possible. Obviously robbery was not an issue, and there was no gang affiliation,” said Santa Ana Police Officer Mario Corona.

Investigators are still interviewing those who had contact with the brothers.

They have some leads, but Corona would not be more specific.

“They were not victims of opportunity,” Corona said. “Someone set out to kill them. It is unusual to be killed the way they were without someone knowing what went on.”

The Parra brothers, who came to Orange County seven years ago, spoke little English and lived frugally so they could provide for their families, whom they visited in Mexico every two years, said brother Omar Parra, 25.

Both sent $200 home to Mexico every two weeks from their $500 paychecks.

Their younger brother said he will quit his restaurant job in Santa Ana and return to the family’s farm in the settlement of Piedra Iman.

There, he said, he will grow corn, beans and tomatoes. He will not make as much money, he said, but will feel better when he is near his six other siblings.

“I don’t feel comfortable here anymore,” he said.