Countywide : No Suspects Found in Guards’ Shootings

The investigations into the unrelated shooting deaths of two unarmed security guards, killed within hours of each other over the holiday weekend, continued Tuesday, but police said there are still no suspects in either case.

One shooting occurred in the lobby of a movie theater in Orange on Sunday night, the other in the parking lot of a bar in Garden Grove early Monday morning. No motive has been established in either case, authorities said.

“It’s a whodunit right now,” said Orange Police Lt. Timm Browne, whose department is investigating the slaying of 23-year-old Dagoberto Carrero, a former Marine and veteran of the Persian Gulf War.

Carrero was standing at his post inside the Century City Centre Theatre near The City Shopping Center when he was hit in a barrage of gunfire at about 11 p.m. Sunday.

“It was an incredibly cruel crime,” Browne said. “Especially in light of the fact that everyone we talked to described this young man as hard-working, motivated and polite. To have someone take his life like this certainly makes you wonder about it all.”

Carrero’s employer, Patrol One, is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for his death.

Police are looking for a group of teen-agers who reportedly threatened Carrero when he asked them to leave the theater so a cleaning crew could straighten up after a showing of the film “Addams Family Values” at 7:15 p.m. Sunday.

Browne asks that anyone who was at the theater at that time contact Detective Mike Harper at (714) 744-7513 or Detective Pat Thayer at (714) 744-7515.

Meanwhile, Garden Grove police are asking for the public’s help in capturing whoever shot 19-year-old Rupert Morales, who was killed less than two hours later as he attempted to direct a car into a parking space at Nick’s Hide-A-Way, 8284 Garden Grove Blvd.

“We’re still working all angles of the case,” said Garden Grove Police Investigator Jeff McGlaughlin.

McGlaughlin said witnesses described the assailant’s vehicle, from which the fatal shots were fired, as a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. But the color of the vehicle is not known because varying descriptions have been given.

The bar, in the 8000 block of Garden Grove Boulevard, has a clientele of mostly male members of the gay community. McGlaughlin said the bar had not been a target of violence in the past, and it appears the victim was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

McGlaughlin asks that anyone with possible information about the shooting of Morales contact the Garden Grove Police Department at (714) 741-5704.