Slain Santa Monica College groundskeeper was ‘truly a family man’

Carlos Franco, a groundskeeper at Santa Monica College, had planned to spend Friday afternoon in his red Ford Explorer, running errands for his daughters.

His daughter Marcela, 26, rode along so she could buy textbooks for summer school at Cal State Dominguez Hills, a statement from Santa Monica College said.

His older daughter Letitia had a doctor’s appointment later that afternoon. Franco, 68, planned to join her.

But those plans, and the stillness of a Santa Monica neighborhood, were shattered Friday when a gunman opened fire, shooting at passing cars and buses seemingly at random.

Bullets from the semiautomatic rifle struck Franco’s Explorer as he pulled out of a campus parking lot, killing him.

Marcela, also shot, was taken to UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. She is not expected to survive.

Including the gunman, five people died in the shooting rampage, which ended when police confronted the shooter outside the Santa Monica College library. He died of multiple gunshot wounds. Law enforcement sources identified him as John Zawahri, in his early 20s.

Franco was a dedicated father and husband who had worked as a groundskeeper at Santa Monica College for 22 years, college President Chui L. Tsang said in a statement.

“He was a dedicated husband and father and an integral part of the Santa Monica College family,� Tsang said. His work was appreciated by “anyone who strolled through the main campus, especially the quad.�

Everything Franco did was for his job and family, supervisor Tom Corpus said.

“He was just a great asset to the college,� Corpus said. “He tried to make people happy and make sure he did the best job he could.�

“Every time I visited him, he would talk about his daughters and his family,� nephew Mario Franco, a member of the college’s workforce and economic development department, said in the statement. “He was a big family man. Everything he did was literally for his daughters.�

Franco’s wife works at Saint John’s Hospital Child Study Center.

Friday’s shootings were not the first tragedy to strike Franco’s family, the statement said. Two years earlier, his son died in a car accident.

The college has established a fund in Franco’s honor. Donations can be made online or mailed to the Santa Monica College Foundation.

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