Aftermath of Killer’s Fury : Supervisor Had Feared Torres

ORANGE —  Melanie Bierlein felt her heart sink as she drove to the Caltrans yard Thursday afternoon to confront her worst fear.

“I knew by looking at his car, the way it was parked funny, I knew he had a confrontation with someone. I told my son, ‘I think he’s dead.’ I knew it right from the get-go,” she said in a quavering voice Friday.

Her husband, Hal Bierlein, 51, a maintenance supervisor killed in Thursday’s shooting, may have been the chief target of Arturo Reyes Torres’ fury. Bierlein had been having run-ins with Torres for months and was instrumental in his firing.

“The man that killed him had made his life miserable for months and months at work,” said Melanie Bierlein, 46, in a telephone interview from her home in Orange.

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Police said the first victim in Torres’ rampage was Bierlein, who was shot as he sat in his Volkswagen.

Orange Police Lt. Art Romo said the 70 rounds Torres then fired into the trailer offices, killing three people, were probably not random either. “He knew who he was shooting at. It was daytime, the lights were on in the trailer, and he could see his targets.”

Bierlein, a Caltrans veteran of 24 years, knew his job well, employees said. At work, he had the reputation of being a “good guy, maybe a little hard to get along with,” said Carrol R. Coleman, 52, a Caltrans electrician. “He was like from the old school, and he was always giving us these messages about working harder.”

Off the job, his sister-in-law said, he was a loving husband and father to his three sons, Justin, 21, Graham, 19, and Randy, 14. A sports fan who rooted for UCLA and the Mighty Ducks, Bierlein was a “laid-back guy who used to love to tell funny stories,” she said. His serious side included a “deep faith and trust in God,” she added.

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In recent months, though, Bierlein had been particularly troubled with Torres and others in his crew, and he shared his frustrations daily with his wife.

“My husband had been with Caltrans so many years that he knew how to do everything,” Melanie Bierlein said. “Art and the other guys would question him every time. He’d get so upset with them. He’d say, ‘I have a reason. I’m the boss here.’ He’d come and tell me every day how difficult the crew was.”

After months of discipline problems with Torres, her husband’s frustration boiled over after an incident in which Torres was assigned to replace a bridge rail. Bierlein told him to take only two metal pieces, one for replacement and the other as backup. Instead, Torres took several, which he allegedly had planned to sell as scrap metal, Melanie Bierlein recounted.

“Hal told me, ‘I think I know how to deal with this. I’ve got to get this man fired, and I’m not getting any backup [from supervisors]. I’m going to go film him stealing, and I’m going to get it on videotape, and then [Caltrans supervisors] can’t ignore me anymore,’ ” his wife said.

Under Caltrans policy, employee surveillance is not allowed unless requested by a police agency. In this case, Caltrans spokeswoman Maureenacq Duran-Rojas said, it was sought by the California Highway Patrol.

Torres, along with fellow employee James H. Torres, who is no relation, were fired in June after Hal Bierlein showed his videotape to Caltrans officials.

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At work, Hal Bierlein had trouble dealing with the animosity that Torres’ firing brought from the rest of the crew, Melanie Bierlein said. Electrician Coleman agreed, saying the incident drew an especially hard line between Bierlein as boss and the rest of the maintenance crew.

“The people had been doing this stuff for years, and having parties. It seemed like all at once, they picked these guys out and they’re gone. If you’re having a problem with a supervisor or an employee, you try to talk it out,” Coleman said.

The antagonism spilled into their home life, when the couple and their three sons were forced to deal with threats they thought had come from Torres, said Melanie Bierlein.

“One night we came home and saw a boulder had been thrown through the window of my son’s car, and we both looked at each other and said, ‘It’s Art.’ I was worried, because they knew where we lived. We started to get nervous for our safety. But then, you think, he got it out of his system, and he’ll leave it alone now.”

She and her husband talked about safety, she recalled. “He told me once, ‘If something ever happens to me, make sure you go to Caltrans,’ ” she said, weeping softly.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Geoff Boucher and David Reyes.