Local News in Brief : Worker Surrenders in Union Agent’s Death

A longtime member of a construction workers’ union reportedly troubled over “some union problems” walked into the Long Beach Police Department late Wednesday and turned himself in for the fatal shooting of a union official who had befriended him, police said.

Ronald Richard Soiset, 53, of Long Beach was taken to a Los Angeles Police Department station, where he was booked on suspicion of murder in the shooting of Walter Sanford, 56, a business agent for the Steam, Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Pipefitters Union, Local 250. Soiset allegedly walked into the union hall on the Los Angeles-Harbor Gateway Strip early Wednesday and shot Sanford in the head.

A union official said Soiset, who had suffered a stroke recently, was “having problems coming around afterward.” Allen Jones, business manger for Local 250, said Taylor “was the one fellow over a period of time who had really tried to help” Soiset.