Father of 3 shot to death in Arcadia-area home

An armed intruder who shot a man to death as his wife and three children huddled in a bedroom at their Arcadia-area home is being sought by authorities, who believe he may have waited outside the residence for the family to return home.

The 35-year-old father was killed Monday night after handing cash to the gunman — money that was to be used to pay rent, detectives said.

The name of the victim will not be released until his parents in Mexico can be notified, Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said. The killer, meanwhile, remains at large, Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said.

Kristi Court, a quiet cul-de-sac in an unincorporated area near Arcadia, was cordoned off late Monday as detectives combed the neatly groomed neighborhood and news trucks waited outside the police lines.

Residents said it was an unusual site in a community with little violent crime.

“One time a kid stole a bike from my garage, but that was 20 years ago,” said James Quan, a pizza store owner standing across the street.

The incident began about 8 p.m. when the gunman, apparently waiting for the family outside their home, confronted them. Detectives said the father gave the gunman money, but he demanded more, believing the family had cash inside the home.

The intruder forced the family inside, and put the wife and children — ages 3, 5, and 6 — in a bedroom.

Sheriff’s detectives said the next thing the mother and children heard were several gunshots. When they ran out, the intruder had fled and the father was critically injured. He later died.

As a slow procession of motorists crept along Kristi Court on Tuesday, navigating past television news trucks, Quan reminisced about quieter times in the neighborhood.

He recalled how his children rode their tricycles in the street when they first moved there in 1990 and how he put up a basketball hoop in the street — as did a neighbor — for pickup games. But his children are young adults now,

As he spoke, workers from Emergency Response, a Monrovia company specializing in crime scene cleaning, pulled up and began unloading gloves, hoses, a vacuum and cleanser.

The 10 stucco houses on the tiny cul-de-sac, each with five bedrooms, cathedral ceilings and three-car garages, were built in 1989.

Residents said they knew little about their neighbor who had been killed or his wife and children.

Quan said he rarely saw the father and that the family entered the house from within the garage, and only then after closing the garage door.

Quan said he didn’t even know the couple had three children until after the shooting.

sam.quinones@latimes.com