OAKLAND — A restaurateur who started with nothing and became a prominent and beloved figure in the Fruitvale business community was shot and killed Friday at the business where he made his name. The gunman fled before police arrived. Campos, 59, who lived in a house just a few yards from the restaurant, was at the business early, as he was every morning, to help with preparations for a 6 a.
Police believe his assailant was trying to rob him. Dozens of relatives and friends came to the Campos residence to provide comfort to his wife and children. De La Fuente said that the company fired Campos when he left to attend to his ailing father in Mexico but that he eventually got Campos his job back with back pay.
It was that money that Campos and his wife, Socorro, used to open their restaurant on International Boulevard in , when there was just a handful of Mexican restaurants in the Fruitvale district. The family opened a second, bigger Otaez restaurant in Alameda in and a third branch inside the Oakland International Airport last year. He went from nothing, not even speaking English, to owning a block. We have to get these people off the street. Campos, who came from the town of Autlan de la Grana in the Mexican state of Jalisco, arrived in the United States decades ago with dreams of a better life.
He met his future wife when they were both working at the same Fruitvale restaurant, Chichen, in the early s. He moved on to work at other restaurants and other jobs, but the couple wanted to start a business of their own.
They found that in Otaez, a family-run restaurant that became a local institution. On Friday morning, Campos was beginning what was his daily routine. Family members say he would wake up shortly after 5 a. Then, he would drive to his ranch in the Palomares Canyon south of Castro Valley, feed the animals and pour himself a cup of pajarete — a drink usually made of fresh milk, chocolate, coffee and a dash of alcohol.
