A 68-year-old liquor store clerk was fatally wounded Thursday night time in Highland Park whereas trying to thwart shoplifters, police stated.
Steven Reyes, a Filipino immigrant who labored at Tony’s Market on Figueroa Street and East Avenue 40, confronted a bunch of youngsters round 7 p.m. as they “attempted to steal various items,” police stated.
Reyes was struck on the top with a scooter, and the suspects — described as two teenage boys and two teenage women, all between 15 and 18 — ran off, police stated.
TV news footage confirmed good Samaritans trying to assist Reyes as he lay on the sidewalk exterior the liquor store. He later died on the hospital, stated LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman.
The Los Angeles Police Department had not introduced arrests by Saturday night, however stated murder detectives had been investigating.
Reyes’ household stated he was trying to stop the youngsters from stealing a case of beer.
Reyes was divorced with 4 youngsters, two within the United States and two within the Philippines, stated daughter Kaycie Reyes, 36.
She stated Reyes lived together with his aged mom in a studio condo not removed from the liquor store the place he labored. He used his earnings to help his mom and tried to ship cash to his household within the Philippines as effectively.
She stated her father left the Philippines for Los Angeles within the early Nineteen Eighties, and had a restricted schooling. Over the years he had additionally made cash as a pool participant and a handyman, and at varied different jobs.
He performed in tournaments at a neighborhood pool corridor, his daughter stated, and when the carnival got here to city, he would come house with an enormous stuffed animal from acing the pool desk challenges.
“My dad killed it every time,” she stated. “We always knew exactly where [the stuffed animal] came from.”
She stated her dad had began working at Tony’s Market earlier this yr, and had beforehand labored at different liquor shops round Los Angeles.
“People have told us this isn’t the first time this has happened — that my dad would try to thwart thieves,” she stated.
She stated detectives appeared hopeful that they’d catch the perpetrators.
“These people were minors, and they left on foot,” she stated. “With those two things in mind, I don’t think they were strangers to the neighborhood. It doesn’t seem like the first time this happened.”
She stated the household has launched a Gofundme web page to assist pay her father’s funeral prices.
