Good Samaritan Remembered by Family

Close friends of a Good Samaritan say he died as he lived. They identified the shooting victim as Alejandro Sanchez Torres. 

Torres, 30, was fatally shot while trying to break up a robbery using a baseball bat near a shopping center in Santa Clarita on Monday afternoon.

Friends add that Torres and his 6-year-old son, Anthony, were going trick-or-treating when they allegedly came across a group of young men attacking another man. Torres stepped in with a baseball bat.

"I gave him the bat 'cause Anthony wanted to look scary. He wanted to get a knife and I told him he couldn't take the knife and I gave him the bat," Roxana Gonzalez said. 

 

Flowers with a note "My Dad" mark the area where a young boy watched his father perish.

 

"He was a great guy, very responsible, loving to his son," Gonzalez added.

 

"It hurts me you know to lose one of your loved ones," Marcelino Ortiz, another friend of the victim, said. 

 

Friends add that Torres was trying to turn his life around. Ortiz says he and Alex were in Alcoholics Anonymous together.

 

"He was a nice man; he is Christian. He likes to read the bible," Ortiz added.

 

Gonzalez told NBC4 News that Torres worked on a ranch in Vallermo and has no family in the United States. Torres' mother lives in Puebla, Mexico. 

 

"He always said, "Don't let anyone boss around or bully you, protect yourself if you need to fight, fight back or just call the police,'" Gonzalez said.

 

Gonzalez also told NBC 4 News that Torres was robbed a couple of weeks ago and was able to fight off his assailants in that case and call 911. 

 

It is believed that the young boy, Anthony, is with his mother who lives in Lancaster. Torres and the mother were not married, according to friends. 

 

All four suspects ages 13-16 in the shooting are in LA Sheriff's custody.

 

The incident began when a 29-year-old man set up a meeting to sell a Nintendo game system.

 

Authorities say that's when the attempted robbery and shooting occurred leaving Torres dead and the man trying to sell the system shot in the right thigh. The latter was treated and released from a local hospital. 

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