Night of violence has Valley bracing for deadly summer
Greuel, Alarcon push for gang intervention programs
By Rachel Uranga, Staff Writer
[email protected]
Article Last Updated: 05/22/2008 12:11:01 AM PDT
As police moved Wednesday to beef up patrols in the San Fernando Valley after
one of the bloodiest nights in years, residents of North Hollywood and other
neighborhoods struggled to make sense of the rash of shootings that left two
dead and eight wounded.
"It is so scary," said Sajedeh Moalk, who was behind the counter of J&C Food
Store, less than 15 feet from where one of two fatal shootings in North
Hollywood broke out. "I have never seen anything like this."
The Valley saw a total of six shootings in a four-hour period Tuesday, but
police say only the North Hollywood fatalities were related. They say at least
two of the other four shootings were gang-related.
In response, the Los Angeles Police Department is adding patrols in North
Hollywood and the Northeast Valley, said Deputy Chief Michel Moore.
"It’s senseless, disheartening and discouraging," Moore said. "There is
nothing in recent memory with this many victims. … It is highly unusual."
The shooting spree brought the year-to-date Valley homicide toll to 30, with
police and residents bracing for the summer months ahead, when violence
traditionally peaks.
"We are anticipating a hot summer, and things happen when it gets above 100
degrees," said Councilman Richard Alarc n, whose district includes Pacoima,
where two shootings Tuesday left three wounded. Alarc n said he is pushing
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to speed up the funding of intervention programs in
the area before summer. Both Alarc n and Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who
represents North Hollywood, are doubling efforts to build Neighborhood Watch
programs.
The brazen gun attacks started in Northridge about 6 p.m Tuesday, when a gray
SUV with four men inside pulled alongside a 16-year-old boy walking near
Wilbur Avenue and Parthenia Street. The boy told police he struggled with one
of the men, who stepped out of the car and pointed a pistol at him, while
another person emerged from the car and shot him with a shotgun.
An hour later, a fight broke out among nearly a dozen Armenian men outside a
restaurant at Whitsett Avenue and Oxnard Street. The men appeared to have
been arguing, police said, when a number of them pulled out guns and firedoff
more than 20 shots. An Armenian male identified as Artak Karamyan, 28, died at
the scene.
Police said a car-to-car gunbattle ensued, and the body of Paylak
Harutyunyan, 29, was dumped at Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Vanowen Street.
Avetis Vartanyan, 24, has been booked on charges of homicide. Police have
suspects in at least two other shootings, but no other arrests had been made
by midevening Wednesday.
About 8:30 p.m., police said, violence broke out in Arleta when a man in a
large, dark SUV pulled up alongside a car carrying four males.
Police said it appears he sprayed the car with eight rounds, shattering
windows. Bullets hit the driver’s shoulder and back, and struck three others.
The gravely injured driver – whose name has not been released – drove them to
Pacifica Hospital of the Valley.
About 20 minutes later, along the 15000 block of Nurmi Street in Sylmar, four
men in a dark car shot an unidentified man.
Then at 9:45 p.m., two Latino men with shaved heads and white shirts drove by
a house in the 1200 block of Vaughn Street and shouted out a gang name
before firing more than eight rounds. The bullets struck a 21-year-old
African-American woman and 22-year-old African-American man. Police said it
doesn’t appear racially motivated.
The victims’ names have not been released.
Despite the bloodshed, Moore points out that overall violent crime in the
Valley continues to fall and gang-related homicides are half – down from 18to
nine – what they were at the same time last year. Still, he said, "we can’t
afford nights like last night."
"All of a sudden, the Valley exploded; the radio was going crazy," said Lt.
Ted Matthews, who oversees detectives at LAPD’s Foothill Division. "It was a
crazy night. I turned the corner to come into the station (that night) and I
thought, there is the full moon."
©2008 Los Angeles Newspaper Group