Man Slain After Argument at Restaurant

The slayings at South Bay fast- food restaurants of two colleagues within six months has cast a pall over an Orange County construction firm. Police, however, do not believe that the two homicides are related.

Cheyenne Figueroa, 39, a construction supervisor from Fontana, was shot in the head Tuesday evening minutes after pulling up to a drive-through window at a Jack-in-the-Box in Inglewood to order the No. 5 combo--a Sourdough Jack, fries and a soft drink.

Ironically, Figueroa’s boss was shot to death at a Jack-in-the-Box in Carson in November.

Alan Peterson Sr., who employed Figueroa at Peterson/Chase General Engineering Construction in Orange County, was slain Nov. 14 in Carson in an apparent carjacking in the middle of the day. Arrested and charged with murder was Lawrence Elliot Cottle, 17, who has a preliminary hearing scheduled today in Lynwood Municipal Court.

The slayings have left employees at Peterson/Chase numb and wondering about the grim coincidences.

“I’m at work at 5:30 in the morning every day of the week, and this morning it was hard to come to work,” Greg Chase, president of Peterson/Chase, said Wednesday. “You start to wonder if it’s all worth it.”

Figueroa had just ordered his dinner when he apparently got into an argument with the man in the car behind him. Moments later, that man stepped out and pumped a bullet into Figueroa’s head, police said.

Seven Inglewood detectives worked all day Wednesday to piece together clues that would lead to Figueroa’s killer, Det. Mark Campbell said. No arrests had been made by late Wednesday in Inglewood’s first homicide of the year.

On Tuesday night, Figueroa was supervising workers on a project to seismically retrofit three bridges over the San Diego Freeway.

At the dinner break, the other workers went to Burger King, but Figueroa went to Jack-in-the-Box less than a mile away at Manchester and Aviation boulevards. The fast-food restaurant, which has had so many robberies that the employees work behind bulletproof glass, is near Los Angeles International Airport in an area of warehouses and office buildings.

Investigators arriving at 7:20 p.m. found Figueroa dead, lying in the front seat of his company pickup.

“Witnesses reported hearing a single gunshot and seeing a white, late model sports utility vehicle fleeing east on Manchester,” Det. Tom Chargaff said. Police were analyzing a videotape taken from a restaurant security camera.

Figueroa had worked for the Orange County engineering company only since October, said Chase, who had known the construction supervisor for 15 years. “He was a great man, a family man and a friend,” Chase said. “He was just full of good spirit.”

Figueroa, who graduated from Artesia High School in Lakewood and attended Cerritos College, married his high school sweetheart 18 years ago. They had three children, ages 17, 13 and 10.

“Words can’t describe him,” his brother-in-law, Bruce Mallock said, his voice cracking. “He was just a wonderful guy all round.”