Manhunt On for Suspect in Guard’s Killing

Police were searching Saturday night for a Bell man suspected in the fatal shooting of a security guard and the wounding of another outside a Sears store at the Mall of Orange after a botched shoplifting attempt Friday.

The suspect, Gilbert Ortiz, 20, was believed to be hiding in south Los Angeles County, possibly in Bell or nearby Paramount. He also uses the surnames Castro and Acosta, police said.

“We still got a manhunt, we’re still looking for this guy, we’re working around the clock trying to find him,” said Orange Police Lt. Art Romo. “We have guys who have been up all day and all night trying to find this guy.”

Romo said police recovered what they believe is the murder weapon, a .25-caliber, semiautomatic handgun, from a trash bin in Orange near the spot where the suspected getaway car, a silver Buick Skyhawk, was ditched behind a Katella Avenue tire store.

Police identified the suspect from a surveillance camera video showing a man wearing a striped shirt and carrying a paint sprayer in a box. “We believe he is responsible for shooting both Sears employees,” Romo said.

Ortiz is described as Latino, 5-foot-8, 150 pounds, with short, dark brown hair and brown eyes. His front teeth are inlaid with gold dental work.

The deceased victim is Kyle O’Brien, 22, of Orange, who was shot twice in the chest and died on the way to a hospital. Randall DePue, 20, also of Orange, was hit once in the arm and is recovering at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Anaheim. Romo described DePue’s condition Saturday as good but would not comment further.

Police were aided in confirming information about Ortiz by a 35-year-old woman who apparently left the Mall of Orange with the shooting suspect in a car. The woman turned herself into Bell police early Saturday, Romo said. Police described her as a witness and not a suspect.

Authorities had already identified Ortiz from the surveillance tape, but the woman confirmed “what we already knew,” Romo said.

“She’s just filling in the pieces of the puzzle we didn’t know for sure,” he said.

Police said events leading to the shooting began about 4 p.m. Friday when a man approached a Sears employee, said he had recently purchased the new paint sprayer he was carrying and asked to return it without a receipt. The man was asked for identification.

Police and witnesses said two unarmed security officers--O’Brien and DePue--walked to the parking lot, apparently to obtain identification from the man’s car.

A struggle ensued and the man pulled out a handgun and shot O’Brien twice in the chest at close range. DePue was shot once in the arm.

The killer got into a silver Buick Skyhawk driven by a second person--apparently the woman who later turned herself in--and sped from the parking lot onto Tustin Avenue.

Police said the car entered the Costa Mesa Freeway, traveled south, then exited on Katella. The pair drove a short distance, then abandoned the car behind the tire shop, in the 1800 block of East Katella Avenue. The gun was found in a nearby trash can.

Ortiz and the woman walked a short distance to a Ralphs grocery and got into a cab, which took them to Los Angeles County, police said. The woman was dropped off in Santa Fe Springs, and the cab drove away with Ortiz inside. Authorities were questioning the driver Saturday about where Ortiz left the taxi.

Relatives of O’Brien visited the Orange County coroner’s office Saturday morning, and a distraught Kelly O’Brien retrieved some of his brother’s belongings from the Orange Police Department. He declined to speak about his brother’s death.