Man Asks for Help Sending His Slain Brothers Home

Friends and relatives of two brothers who were fatally shot last week contacted the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana on Monday for help returning the bodies to Mexico for burial.

Omar Parra, 25, said he hopes to return his brothers, Javier and Saldivor, to their wives, who live in Tijuana.

“I don’t know what to do anymore,” Parra said Monday. “I want to go back with them too. I don’t have anyone else here, and my family really needs my help.”

Mexican Consul Miguel Angel Isidro in Santa Ana said he put the widows in touch with the Orange County Office of Violent Crime, which could help defray the burial costs. The consul has also spoken with local police.

“These were two hard workers who were raising families. It’s a really horrible thing that has happened. It’s quite unusual. We just hope to support the family as we can,” Isidro said.

The brothers died Saturday, a day after they were gunned down in a shopping center outside Hometown Buffet on 17th Street, where they had worked for four years. Businesses in the small center were closed and the parking lot nearly empty when the brothers left work about 11 p.m. Friday, investigators said. Javier, 36, and Saldivor, 32, were wounded after they got into their car, which then rolled across the restaurant parking lot and struck a tree, police said.

Witnesses told police they heard shots and saw a man running from the parking lot. Saldivor Parra was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died about 1 a.m. Saturday. Nine hours later, Javier Parra died at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. Investigators said they have few clues. Robbery and gang ties have been ruled out as motives.

“The information we have right now is very limited,” said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Baltazar De La Riva. “We’re very baffled.”

Both brothers had families. Javier, a dishwasher, had three sons and two daughters. Saldivor, a cook, had two daughters.

The men, who came to Orange County seven years ago, spoke little English and lived frugally so they could provide for their families, whom they visited every two years, their brother said. Both sent $200 home to Mexico every two weeks from their $500 paychecks.

“They don’t drink, no drugs, no nothing,” said Omar Parra, who lives in Anaheim and works as a cook and baker. “It’s very confusing.” The brothers shared a rented room in a private home. There, Saldivor Parra would cook hot buffalo wings, and the brothers would listen to Mexican and Colombian music, said friend Jose Ramirez, 29, of Anaheim.

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Times staff writer Jennifer Mena contributed to this story.