Authorities Tuesday identified two employees of a Compton auto shop who were shot dead after a group of men tried to rob the store.
The bodies of Vance Donnell Dean, 40, of Long Beach and Lejon David Robins, 40, of Huntington Beach were discovered by deputies responding to a burglary-in-progress call just before 8 p.m. Monday at Custom City Auto in the 300 block of North Long Beach Boulevard, authorities said.
Another employee, an adult male, was wounded but is expected to live, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Benjamin Grubb said.
When deputies arrived, they saw a green van matching a description of the suspects’ vehicle driving away. Deputies pulled the van over a few blocks away at Ward Avenue and Compton Boulevard and, after a brief foot pursuit, arrested the six men.
One, however, became unresponsive in the back of a patrol car and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead of an apparent heart attack. The coroner’s office would not give his name, pending notification of next of kin.
— Tony Barboza and Corina Knoll