by Jerry Roberts

The seaside serenity of Manhattan Beach was slapped with a shock of urban reality last week when one of two or more robbers pulled out a nine-millimeter handgun and shot and killed an Alhambra man while he sat in the driver’s seat of his car just off Manhattan Avenue.

He and a friend had returned to the car after seeing another friend, a Manhattan Beach resident, to his home. The two victims had stopped in the city momentarily to drop off the local friend after a night of bowling in Torrance.

Flowers, a candle and other memorial markers were placed at the murder scene last week at 217 11th St. And Thomas Chan, a computer expert who had been contemplating marriage to his longtime girlfriend, won’t see his 37 birthday.

The three or four gunshots that residents heard just after midnight on Friday morning claimed a life for little or no money, shook up residents in the downtown neighborhood between Manhattan and Highland avenues and, so far, have police detectives baffled.

"It’s a senseless murder," said city Detective Sgt. Tony DiGenova. "Just very unfortunate. It’s kind of hard to understand why he shot him. The robbery was one thing. Obviously, the robbery motivated the contact. But what led to the shooting? Is it that easy for someone to take somebody’s life? This one’s really hard for me to understand."

Two or possibly three men in their early 20s, one in a bulky black jacket, approached the three robbery victims on the street. While the one victim complied with the robbers, one did not, according to police, and that’s when the gun was drawn. After the shooting, the suspects fled in different directions. Police believe that one or more of them escaped in either a blue four-door Hyundai or a dark Toyota Camry that was parked on Bayshore Drive. Chan was rushed to County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Harbor Gateway, where he was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m.

The shooter was described as an African-American man in his early 20s, 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds, sporting a goatee and a short Afro haircut. The surviving victims are Christopher Jurka of Manhattan Beach and David Jones of Playa del Rey.

The investigation rousted detectives out of bed. A helicopter was dispatched to the scene and conducted a search of the perimeter. Police made two sweeps with K-9 dogs. Officers searched alleys and residences, DiGenova said, and are following up until they contact all residents and business owners in the immediate area. Police received a report that the suspects got into a car parked on Bayview, which immediately fled that area. The search involved officers poking through alleys, shrubbery, entering garages, checking trash cans and boxes, DiGenova said.

Police have asked that anyone who has any information that might pertain to the case call the detective bureau at (310) 802-5120 or the front desk at 802-5140. "I’ve dedicated almost the entire detective bureau to solving this case," DiGenova said. Late Tuesday night, the city council unanimously agreed to the police department’s request to offer a $25,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest or conviction of the suspect. The money was taken from the council’s contingency fund.

"As tragic as this incident was Manhattan Beach is still a safe city," said Police Chief Ernie Klevasahl. "I just wish we could track down more information. It was an interesting case for a chief looking at his own staff. The demeanor of my officers was that they were really shocked at the senselessness of the crime. The victim was truly a victim of circumstances. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ron Walker was the officer who personally notified the next of kin. He felt so personally violated by this crime. They take it personally on their beats.

"I’ve worked a lot of places where there has been a lot of violent crime. And it can make you callous. There’s no callousness here. Cynicism about something as terrible as this doesn’t exist here. Myself — I’m very happy I live here," said Klevasahl, who took over the force in July 1999. The Chan homicide is the first on his watch.

In his 20 years as a policeman in Manhattan Beach, DiGenova said that there have been perhaps as many as a dozen homicides in the city. During one concentrated run in the late 1990s, five were committed. Among those not solved from that time was the fatal stabbing of man who was walking with his girlfriend on the beach, and the shooting of a businessman in a car on Poinsettia Avenue. Some of the solved cases include the shooting in the head of a federal agent at Mr. Pockets sports bar, and the killing of one of two delivery truck drivers in an office in the 800 block of Manhattan Avenue, by a man whose molestation of a woman was interrupted by them.

In most cases in Manhattan Beach, the murdered party was known to the victim." DiGenova said. "The one on the beach, the one on Manhattan Avenue and the current one were done at random. And this is a relatively low amount compared to other cities. Hermosa Beach and El Segundo are similar to us, and Torrance and Redondo Beach have more cases."ER