Sunday, September 1, 1985 The Orange County Register A3

'NIGHT STALKER': SUSPECT CAPTURED

How ordinary people rounded up suspectAlleged slayeroverpowered onEast LA streetBy Gregg Zoroyaand Enrique RangelThe Register

In an ordinary neighborhood,much like those where the so-called "night stalker" struck, ordi-nary people caught Richard Ra-mirez.

They overpowered Ramirez andheld him for police on a neat resi-.dential street in East Los Angeles,a close-knit place where the neigh-bors know each other.

Usually, Hubbard Street is a qui-et little community.

But in the hours after the cap-ture, Hubbard Street rang with thesounds of celebration.

Neighbors joined in groups tochat and congratulate each other.

"This is a good neighborhood,"said Olegario Garcia, a 35-year-oldunemployed resident who joined incatching Ramirez on Saturdaymorning.

He and the others who capturedRamirez people such as Manuelde la Torre, a quality control in-spector, and 21-year-old JaimeBurgoin, a college student who as-pires to be a California HighwayPatrol officer did not knowwhom they had at first. They saidthey acted only on an instant ou-trage at some unnamed strangerdressed in black, from his rubber-soled shoes to his T-shirt, who ranonto their street and tried to com-mandeer two cars.

They did not know at the timethat people throughout 'Los Ange-les had been spotting Ramirez allmorning.

According to police, the sus-pect's earlier movements had beentracked by reported sightings, firstin a liquor store south of downtownLos Angeles and then on a bus justsouth of Boyle Heights.

. About 9 .a.m., Elena Salter, 56,was watering the front lawn of herHubbard Street apartment when

. she saw Ramirez and immediatelyrecognized tym. An unidentified

x Ygnaclo Nanetti/The RegisterA crowd gathers outside the Hollenbeck police station in East Los Angeles, hoping for a glimpse of the 'night stalker' suspect.

Southern California Gas Co. em-ployee who was driving by yelledout that Ramirez was the "nightstalker."

"My heart almost stopped,"Salter said.

After hiding briefly as Ramirezdisappeared around the building,

Salter ran to call police.Seconds later, at the house next

doorj Faistiho Pinon, 56, was aboutto climb under his 1966 Mustang tocheck the transmission. The car'sengine was running and suddenlysomeone was inside trying to driveit away, Pinon later recounted. ?i-

non ran around the car, grabbedthe man around the neck and wasdragged back and forth as the driv-er, later identified as Ramirez,tried to back out of the tight drive-way. When Pinon finally pulled thesteering wheel and forced the Mus-tang into a tree, he and Ramirez

were thrown out of the car. Ra-mirez took off running.

Across the street, Manuel de laTorre's wife, Angie, 29, and neigh-bor Lourdes Estupinan, 25, wereabout to drive off to the local super-market when, according to Mrs. dela Torre, Ramirez suddenly ran up

and forced her out of her car.Mrs. de la Torre, who speaks lit-

tle English, said the man told herin Spanish, "give me the keys!,give me the keys!," and then gotinto the car while she fell to theground.

"I screamed es el maton! Es elmaton! (It's the killer! It's the kill-er!)," Mrs. de la Torre said. "Helooked scared and was sweating allover.

"I knew it was him because I sawhis picture on TV last night (Fri-day)."

Responding to his wife'sscreams and those of Estupinan,Manuel de la Torre grabbed alength of steel bar and went afterthe suspect.

"When I got to the car he wasready to flee but I hit him on theforehead," de la Torre said inSpanish. "Then he started runningbut I went after him ... he had justhit my wife and I was very angry, Iwasn't about to let him escape."

De la Torre said he chased thesuspect four houses down thestreet and hit him for a second timeon the base of the skull.

The suspect reportedly stumbledafter being hit for the second timeand screamed in Spanish "Let mego, let me go!"

De la Torre, who by that timehad been joined by at least fiveneighbors in chasing the suspect,said he hit him at least twice morein the arm and in the back.

Thirty-year-old Jose Perez andGarcia, de la Torre's next-doorneighbors, said they joined thechase after seeing the woman be-ing pushed to the ground.

"I just couldn't sit here andwatch... I had to help," Perez said."I picked a stone and yelled to Ole-gario. I knew we would catchhim."

The de la Torres were questionedat the Hollenbeck Division of theLos Angeles Police Department,then returned to a hero's welcome.

"You had done a lot for our peo-ple," said an unidentified Spanish-speaking man to de la Torre, "Weare all indebted to you."

Asked by reporters if he consid-ered himself a hero, de la Torrereplied, "No, I just did what any-one else would have done." Thecrowd cheered.

Relief in Mission Vjejo area where slayer struckCHAIN OF EVENTS

1 . ffeb, 25; A 6-year'Ofct $inwas kfdVfcppetf as he wailedin front of & MorKetiettofelementary school. She was

Angeles, molested, then setfree a few hours later ir* that

- city's Rampart District, where apedestrian (bund ner "2. March ti: A 9-yearoid boy waskidnapped fromWS Monterey FarknOmein the early morning,hours as his parentsand-younger brother slept. He wasmolested, and found warjdertng inChinatown rnat day,3* March t7: Dayle tteakt 34< was shot todeath in her Ptosemead condominium at 11Her 25