Robbers Kill Film Worker Who Walks in on Holdup

A movie industry costumer from San Francisco was killed after he walked into a Culver City liquor store during a robbery, police said Monday.

Brad Anderson, 42, suffered a fatal gunshot wound Friday after entering the Liquor Barrel in the 3900 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard, said Culver City Police Det. Mike Conzachi.

Anderson, who had once lived in Los Angeles and had worked in the film industry for about 20 years, died later at UCLA Medical Center, Conzachi said.

For the last two years, he had lived in San Francisco, working on the CBS-TV detective show “Nash Bridges” starring Don Johnson and Cheech Marin.

Marion Kirk, of Lincoln, Neb., said that Anderson was her best friend and that they had been next-door neighbors in Toluca Lake.

Anderson had done about a dozen films with Sylvester Stallone, she said, including the 1994 action picture “The Specialist,” also starring Sharon Stone.

Police said two robbers, one armed with a handgun, had held up the liquor store at 6:42 p.m. when Anderson walked in. He was confronted by the bandits, and “for unknown reasons, one of the suspects shot Mr. Anderson,” Conzachi said.

The robbers, described as 18 to 20 years old, escaped with between $120 and $200 and are still at large, he said.

“These kids took his life for no reason,” Kirk said in a telephone interview. “It is just devastating.”

Kirk said that she and Anderson, who was originally from Oklahoma City, had worked together at the Western Costume Co. in North Hollywood in the 1970s.

“He was so well-liked,” Kirk said. “He was very respected, and he got along with everybody. He has a lot of friends. Brad would not hurt anybody.”

The robbery and fatal shooting took place in daylight along a busy stretch of Sepulveda, just south of Venice Boulevard, Conzachi said. He asked that anyone with information call Culver City detectives at (310) 253-6309.