Selling his iPhone online, he tried to be safe. But they ‘were willing to kill him,’ police say

He did everything right.

Daniel Carlos, 32, of Redwood City, Calif. was selling his used iPhone online using an app called “Letgo,” and arranged to meet the buyers in broad daylight at a busy intersection in San Leandro, NBC Bay Area reports. Carlos even brought a relative with him, just to be safe.

“Unfortunately, the suspects were willing to kill him over a phone,” Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office told NBC.

Carlos was shot, killed and robbed by multiple suspects Saturday just after 1 p.m. at a gas station in Alameda County, not far from the Bayfair Center shopping mall and a local BART train station, Sgt. Kelly told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“What’s so shocking is that this was in broad daylight at one of the major intersections in Alameda County, where there's a lot of vehicle and foot traffic,” Kelly told NBC.

Carlos’ relative who had accompanied him was uninjured, NBC reports.

When the gas station attendant heard the shot that killed Carlos, he thought it was just a tire popping, KRON4 reports. But when the attendant looked closer, he could see that a man’s body was lying on the ground near the gas pumps.

Carlos died at the gas station, according to KRON4, and the suspects fled in a car.

“Daniel was a husband and father to a young child,” Sgt. Kelly said in a statement to the Chronicle. “Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.”

There have been a handful of leads in the shooting death, but no suspects have been identified or arrested, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office told the East Bay Times.

Letgo, that app that Carlos used to plan the phone sale, said that it’s working with police to assist in the investigation.

“This is an unimaginable tragedy and our thoughts are with the victim’s family,” a representative for the app said in a statement to KRON4. “Nothing will ever be more important to us than our users’ trust and safety. That’s why letgo includes things like user profiles, ratings, reviews and in-app messaging, which let you see who you’re talking to and what others have said about them.”

A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for Carlos’ family says that he’ll be remembered as a loving husband and father, and that he “always greeted you with a huge smile, long hug and that infectious laugh.”

The account has raised more than $11,000 so far to support Carlos’ wife and 5-year-old daughter.

Carlos had recently worked for Tesla, the electric car company, but was between jobs, Patch reports.

Police recommend anyone doing an online transaction use a designated “safe-exchange zones,” which cities across the country have started creating to cut down on robberies related to Craigslist or other online sales platforms, according to the East Bay Times. Even meeting at a police station parking lot can help deter crime, the sheriff’s office said.

If the buyer or seller isn’t willing to meet at one of those safe locations, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office told Patch, the transaction isn’t worth it.

This story was originally published November 21, 2017 at 3:20 PM with the headline "Selling his iPhone online, he tried to be safe. But they ‘were willing to kill him,’ police say."