Robbers Tie, Kill Manager of Restaurant

The manager of the El Torito Mexican restaurant on Vista Way was stabbed to death, and two janitors were cut and tied up in a robbery after the restaurant closed for the night Tuesday, Oceanside police reported.

“It was the most brutal murder I’ve seen during my 20 years as a cop and eight years working homicide,” said Officer Bob George of the Oceanside Police Department.

It occurred sometime after the restaurant closed Tuesday about 11:30 p.m., George said. Just after 2 a.m., one of the two janitors--one 15, the other 17--broke free from his bonds and called police.

When police arrived, officers found the manager dead, bound and stabbed a number of times, on the floor of his office, George said. The San Diego County coroner’s office identified the victim as David S. Taber, 36, of Oceanside.

Besides the two maintenance workers, there were no other witnesses, George said.

George said neither of the juveniles could identify the attackers--even by race--but he would not elaborate.

Private security guard Don Merry, who works at the shopping center where El Torito is situated, said he was told that the assailants were wearing ski masks and gloves, a report that George would neither confirm nor deny.

George said it was unknown how much money was taken because restaurant employees were kept out Wednesday while investigators searched the place and the hillside behind it, along the north side of California 78 between El Camino Real and Jefferson Street.

The two janitors were taken to Tri-City Medical Center, where they were treated for minor injuries.