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Caring, friendly, kind

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Times Staff Writer

Outraged residents of a Mid-Wilshire neighborhood called Saturday for the quick arrest of the person who doused a homeless man with gasoline and burned him to death on a 3rd Street sidewalk in an area where he had lived for two decades.

A clearer portrait of the still unidentified victim of Thursday night’s gruesome torching emerged as those who live and work in the multiethnic neighborhood near the corner of 3rd and Berendo streets made plans for a 5 p.m. vigil today in his memory.

The heavyset man in his 50s, whom everyone called “John,” was a onetime businessman who ended up on the street when his career evaporated, some said. He came from a well-to-do family that tried repeatedly to persuade him to return home, others said. He was a helpful and thoughtful person who watched out for his neighbors and took pains not to offend them with his presence, according to many.

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Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery and Homicide Division were continuing to investigate Saturday. One witness reported seeing several young men emerge from a Honda Civic and douse the victim with the contents of a red plastic gas container. Another reportedly saw a Latino in his 20s with short brown hair and a large black T-shirt running from the scene after the attack, which occurred about 9:30 p.m.

Investigators for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said the identity of the victim would probably be disclosed this morning.

Neighbors said they knew the man from daily encounters with him on 3rd Street, where he sat near an empty dental office. They placed an impromptu shrine with dozens of candles, hand-written letters and other remembrances there Saturday morning.

A sign bearing the words “RIP John” and a photograph of the victim taken two months ago was taped above the sidewalk. It depicted a shoeless, rotund, bearded man clad in a sweater and a dirty, oversize jacket.

Emeita Diaz, 19, said she snapped the picture on her cellphone camera after noticing that the sweater bore the logo of the after-school program for which she works.

“I said ‘hi’ to him every day because I walked this way to school and work,” Diaz said.

“He was never threatening to people. His eyes looked at you very humbly, very sweet. I felt he wanted to say more.”

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Fifteen-year-old Stephanie Coto, a ninth-grader who lives nearby, placed bouquets of flowers at the site with two friends.

“I’d seen him all the time, all my life,” Stephanie said. “This is beyond evil. There aren’t words to describe it.”

Berendo Street resident Julie Gin, 35, knew John for six years. She regularly took him food from the First Church of the Nazarene, where she helps cook meals for the homeless.

“He would just sit right there and drink his coffee and eat a doughnut and smoke a cigarette,” Gin said. “He would not bother anybody.”

When she took him his last lunch Thursday, 7 1/2 hours before he was killed, John jokingly asked if she’d brought a fork to go with it. “I’d forgotten the fork the last time,” she said. “This time I remembered.”

John often peered into the side mirrors on cars parked along 3rd Street, checking to see if he needed a haircut or a shave. Occasionally, those in the neighborhood would trim his hair. Good Samaritans sometimes took him to shelters where he could shower.

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Trina Lewis, 53, who lived in the neighborhood before moving to Rialto, said she went for years without speaking to the man until one day he helped her without being asked.

“In 2001 I came home from the hospital where I’d had surgery and the cab driver got mad when I gave him a [fare] voucher,” Lewis said. “He threw my walker and my bag in the street and left me standing there.”

Lewis was clinging to a building to stand up when the homeless man gently took her by the elbow and led her to her apartment elevator. He also retrieved her belongings from the street.

“After that, he always called me ‘Baby Girl.’ I can’t imagine who would do this to him.”

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said the torching death was discussed by round-table participants Saturday, including Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton.

In a statement, Bratton called the killing “heinous” and said he was eager for detectives to solve the case so that “sociopaths” do not “go out and try to do something like this again.”

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bob.pool@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.

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