Torrance : No Leads in Two Slayings

Hampered by conflicting eye-witness accounts, police report no solid leads in an investigation into the deaths of two men who were shot in the head during a brawl among football and soccer players at Torrance Elementary School on Thanksgiving Day.

“There is (such) a problem of antagonistic witnesses and wide diversification in stories that it is hard to tell whom to believe,” Sgt. Ron Traber, the department spokesman, said Tuesday.

Alfredo Tapia, 36, and Charles Camou, 56, both of Torrance, were killed. The shootings, which occurred shortly after 1 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, took place in the confused context of a slugfest that involved as many as 30 people who were on the school playground, Traber said.

Several dozen people had gathered at the site for separate games of football and soccer, but exactly what led to the fight and shootings is not known, Traber said, adding that many of the participants had been drinking.

Witnesses at the scene described a suspect as a male of Mexican appearance, age 30 to 35, 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-8 in height, weighing between 150 and 160 pounds. The man was wearing a dark wool sailor’s hat, a black jacket, black bell-bottom pants and sunglasses.