Man Shot to Death in Drive-by on Laurel Canyon in North Hollywood
The LAPD is seeking up to six people believed to be involved who were in a van and led police on a high-speed chase.
Photos
A man riding a bicycle was shot to death on the 6800 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard about one block north of Vanowen Street around 1:37 a.m. Monday. Following the shooting, police were involved in a high-speed chase and massive air and K-9 search in Van Nuys, but the shooter and possible accomplices are still at large.
Det. Thomas Townsend of the Los Angeles Police Department North Hollywood Division said the victim was a male Hispanic and was believed to have been killed in a drive-by shooting. The shooting is believed to be gang related. The victim was later identified as being 19 years old, but his name has not yet been released.
In the minutes after the homicide, it was broadcast over the North Hollywood Division's police scanner frequency that the LAPD was seeking a white '95 Astrovan last seen fleeing south on Laurel Canyon.
LAPD Detective Richard Wheeler said a sheriff's deputy who was in the area saw a van occupied by about six suspects speeding from the scene and tried to follow it, but it got away. The chase went down Vanowen from North Hollywood into Van Nuys. An officer was heard to say over the police scanner that they were in pursuit of a white van driven by a "187 suspect."
According to information overheard on the scanner, the van turned off Vanowen near Katherine Avenue and lost the officers in the residential neighborhoods. The van was later found abandoned about five miles away from the shooting near the corner of Sherman Way and Hazeltine Avenue. An LAPD helicopter was searching the area between 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. but then left. K-9 units were still searching the area after 5 a.m.
The victim was riding a bicycle, police said, and one was laying in the street on Laurel Canyon just a few feet from where the victim's body was covered with a sheet between two automobiles on the east side of Laurel Canyon. A member of the LAPD forensic team was also seen inspecting the bike.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, and his arm was visible, hanging out from under the sheet and draped onto the sidewalk, hours after the shooting.
Anthony Pardines and the City News Service contributed to this report.
Laprincessa
6:43 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Wow Craig, you are seriously on top of the news. Thanks so much. I don't watch tv news, so repetitive and depressing - LOVE the Patch. And appreciate the timeliness of your updates.
Jack
1:39 pm on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
I agree. The media in LA does very little reporting of what actually happens here. I just discovered this site abut 3 weeks ago and really like it.
Craig Clough
7:56 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Thank you Laprincessa. My crack crime reporter/photographer Anthony Pardines also deserves credit, as he took these incredible photos and contributed to the reporting as well.
Samantha
9:46 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
It's time to go against the NRA; cause of all these guns. Either fight them, or get a permit to set up on all the street corners "guns for sale booths." Make sure you don't check their I.D. & add to that sell to all gangs. This gun thing is dispicable. We don't need guns for anything but wars & police officers to fight against the maniacs of our society.
Pooh, pooh, those of your who hide behind the amendment that's so overly outdated it's pathetic.
John J. Nazarian
10:02 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Samantha I will give up my guns when someone can assure me ALL the bad guys have done the same.....NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! What we should have in California is a more liberal CCW laws and that would be of great help for the citizens to be able to protect themselves. You dont get much better than Det. Thomas Townsend, the guy is tenacious and I am honored to call him a friend. If this was in fact a 'gang shooting' and 'junior' was a part of that life I say, 'Too Bad' but his could be a good thing in the long run. IF he was just a decent kid gunned down, that is a just terrible.
Bad guys, you better be looking for 'Bull Dog' Townsend!
John J. Nazarian, P.I.
Danny Brady
10:44 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Nice, just blocks from where I grew up. This should be an added reason the Valley Plaza Shopping Center will never be re-built, who wants to risk getting shot getting there?!
Jack
1:42 pm on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Well, John, I understand your logic but it is false. More Americans now own guns that at any time in our history, yet the crime rate increases across most of the US. The real irony of our times is that in LA, a city with some of the strongest anti gun laws in the world crime is actually going DOWN.....yet, in Texas, where packing a gun is considered 'manly' crime is escalating rapidly.....
Lightnapper
11:13 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Last week LAPD had a sit-down with representatives of half the 18 gangs to a community forum/parole check. Indirectly, LAPD stated they would start their own personal war with these gun happy shoot-ya-in-dey- back Vatos the very next time they engaged in said activity. "It will be like nothing you've ever seen," a LAPD Captain warned. So, when does this tough love begin? You have a "Green Light." Become the "Shot Caller." The day LAPD was forced to disband CRASH because a few bad apples went astray was the day "Homie" did a little victory dance. And gangs have only become so much stronger. Liberals reacted and criminals rejoiced. The rest of us non-partisan, good citizens of LA are waiting for some law enforcement activity beyond informing the victim's family their child is dead, and the public that yet another gang shooting has occurred. Then the circular reasoning "it's guns not people who kill" arguments begin. People kill people, period. The instrument of destruction is as irrelevant as any disarm the general public request. Gang members who murder are a subset, and they do not go out and legally acquire a weapon which can be easily traced back to them. DAH! Statistically, the LA Homicide Report shows that from 2007 until the present time-- if you are a Latino male, 18, and it's Saturday night, you are at the head of the list to be gunned down. When is the Latino community going to get tired of losing sons and daughters and revolt against this gang mentality tyranny?
Laprincessa
11:20 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
It would be great if the police would focus more on deadly and gang related crimes rather than traffic ticketing every Joe Blow for every tiny infraction. Not that I'm against upholding the law, but doesn't death, theft and drugs take precedence over speeding or parking in the wrong spot?
Alex Daniels
11:00 am on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
yeah it would be nice, but the police need to pull people in Studio City over to pay fro their pensions and blated salaries...did you know a LAPD motorcycle cop makes (with overtime) about 180 thousand a year????
Jack
1:45 pm on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
We can do both and should. When it comes to traffic fines, don't speed, don't run lights, don't tailgate, don't make illegal u turns, left turns, or lane changes without signalling...See? traffic problem solved.
Michael Calder
4:52 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
Yet the city council votes to condemn Arizona and votes to support the illegal alien invasion of Los Angeles. Until recently I lived near Laurel Canyon and Sherman Way. If I wanted to have lunch at Denny's I would be the only Anglo American in the restaurant. When shopping at Ralphs around the corner I would be the only Anglo. Same at Rite Aid. Where are we to go? How are we to live? Most LAUSD teachers send their kids to private school. Most middle and high schools are ninety percent mexican. And now we are being assaulted and murdered. A moat perhaps with alligators? We already live on tiny islands of whiteness that shrink year to year. When and how to end the madness.
Laprincessa
4:56 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Holy cow, this is the most prejudice comment I've read in a long time.
The Hispanic community is not to blame for this killing - from what I gather, it's gang related. Stereotyping all gang members as Hispanic is the ultimate form of bigotry. Gangs are made up of all ethnicities.
And FYI, the latin community was here loooooong before the white folk. There's room for everyone to live happily, there are plenty of communities across the country doing it just fine.
LA Momma
1:44 pm on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Michael, right now I'm more afraid of you than I am of any misguided child with a gun. I see that you feel like you are in the minority .... but you are still very much in a position of privilege in our society. There are a few books you could read that would explain that to you and maybe you would feel better about yourself and have some empathy for others.
Jack
1:47 pm on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Geezus, enjoy the differences among people. So what if you are not in control anymore....get life...you think your problems are the fault of immigration? yikes...who'd you blame before? had to be somebody.
Karla Johnson
5:59 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
EXPLAIN TO ME HOW A SUSPICIUS VAN WITH MANY GANGS INSIDE CAN GET AWAY SO EASILY FROM A SHERIFF PATROL CAR? ARE THE POLICE IN THIS COUNTRY ON THE STREET TO ISSUE TRAFFIC TICKET OR TO FIGHT CRIME....VERY COWARD POLICE.....
AMother
6:15 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
...time to go against the NRA... clueless statement. This unfolded right outside my window. There are two families or seven whose lives changed in an instant... six families who will not see their sons anymore. One dead and the rest will be put away for many many year... and don't fool yourselves, the families will be in jail with them... all due to an instant where a BAD decision was made. I am certain the cowards who had to ride six to shoot one regretted their bad choice immediately. Lets stop taking 'sides' and looking for someone to blame, it ain't the cops or the NRA...it is far deeper than that... the fix and the cure for all this is withing every individual, withing us.
Pat
2:19 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The police could use the license plate to track down its owner. Maybe that way they'll be able to find the people responsible for this murder.
chris
12:34 pm on Wednesday, June 8, 2011
He was an innocent man, son, brother and friend to many. These individuals that did this are lost soles with nothing better to do than hurt the lives of others. Ones guilt on taking a life will surface. Take the gun away and they are nothing, they are cowards with a weapon. This is inhumane what these individuals did.
LA Momma
1:50 pm on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
I think that most of us will be hurt by someone we know instead of a stranger. I mean our parents, our spouses, our neighbors, our co-workers; all of them have the power to hurt in by word or deed. Random killings are rare and tragic. I think the exception might be vehicular manslaughter - I admit I'm very afraid of reckless drivers of 2+ ton cars.