Four Dead in "Bloodbath" at San Fernando Valley Restaurant

[villager]

Source: LA Times

4 dead in 'blood bath' at Valley restaurant

At least two other people are injured as gunman opens fire at a mom-and-pop cafe in Valley Village.


A gunman opened fire at a mom-and-pop restaurant in Valley Village on Saturday afternoon, killing four people and wounding at least two others, Los Angeles police said.

The Hot Spot Cafe, a Mediterranean restaurant on Riverside Drive, was packed with customers when a man walked in and opened fire around 4:40 p.m., according to police officials.

He remained at large late Saturday.

Police officials said the shootings occurred in a matter of moments. After shots were fired, the customers ran out of the restaurant and scattered on foot and in cars, they said.

The killer was a white male in his 30s, said Los Angeles police officer Rosario Herrera.

Three people were declared dead at the scene, Herrera said. Several more victims were taken to a hospital, where one later died, she said.

Police officials investigating the incident described the scene as a "blood bath." They are examining evidence to see whether there was an accomplice, according to officials.

"At this moment, it is an ongoing investigation," Herrera said. "We are unsure of the motive and we don't know exactly how it occurred."

Law enforcement sources, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing, said they believe the shooting might have involved Armenian gangs. But they also said that they have no evidence that the victims were involved in gangs, noting that the case is in its early stages.

Several hours after the killings, police cordoned off Riverside Drive near Colfax Avenue. A large neon sign flashing "Mediterranean Restaurant" lit up as the sun set. Tall leafy plants in pots sat in front of the windows.

<snip>


Read more: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/03/local/la-me-restaurant-shooting4-2010apr04

[Bumblebee]

1. Interesting -- because the article below says they never had any customers:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14815936

VALLEY VILLAGE - Four people were killed and two others wounded in a shooting at a Valley Village cafe Saturday, police said.

The shooting took place at the Hot Spot Cafe on Riverside Drive, which bills itself as a Mediterranean restaurant but which neighbors described as often oddly empty.

Police said a group of men was gathered inside the restaurant around 4:30 p.m. when at least one other man walked in and opened fire, striking at least six people. Three men died at the scene, while the fourth died at a local hospital and two others underwent surgery and were later listed in critical but stable condition.

The main suspect was described only as a white male, possibly Armenian, around 30 years old. Police were seeking to determine if he had accomplices.

Investigators, with the assistance of the Glendale Police Department, were believed to be looking into possible organized-crime ties to the shooting, but did not release any information about possible motives.

"It's a very complex investigation that we are involved in right now," said Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, head of the LAPD's Valley Bureau.

...

Neighbors and workers at nearby businesses said the tinted-window cafe often seemed strangely empty. Many said it was rare for them to see customers eat there, while some said they sometimes would see a crowd of men in suits smoking outside, but not eating.

"The place is shady," said Matt Edwards, who lives close enough to have heard the "pop, pop" of gunfire. "It opened five years ago and it's always closed and empty."

"There's always people outside talking but never anyone eating," said Kim Sutton, who lives around the corner.

Added Erin Yates, who has lived in the area for 16 years: "It just makes you wonder, if no one's eating there, what they're doing. That freaks me out."

[villager]

2. I drive right past it a lot, and am trying to remember if I've seen it open...

So this might bring up whether it was more a "meeting" of some type, than a gathering of customers...?

[Bumblebee]

3. Probably -- sounds like an Armenian mafia den of some kind.

and here is perhaps a telling review from 2007:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hot-spot-cafe-north-hollywood

1 star rating
7/4/2007

I rolled by this place on my bike once, and stopped in just to check it out. There was no acknowledgment of my walking in the door by the four guys in aprons in the mostly open kitchen. I found myself a menu on a wobbly table, it was a large, two sided, color thing that had been twice laminated, once with plastic, once with grease. It had about a dozen entrees and maybe two were meatless. So I walk to the counter and one guy breaks the huddle and walks, chest first, to the counter, still saying nothing. "How's the falafel?" I ask.
"Yeah, one falafel!"
"No, no, no- I was just asking if it was good." I could already see by now that this guy was not in the mood and I'm guessing he rarely ever is.
"I already ate, I was just checking out your menu."
"Why you come in if you already ate?"
"I was just passing by- maybe I'll come in tomorrow. What time do you open?"
He says, "We open NOW."
So maybe I said, "oookay." or maybe I just was thinking, "ooookay." in my head, but then he barks,
"Bye."
And as I'm backing out the door, I'm wondering if he is saying 'buy', as in, "Please buy something from us.", or if its really just, "Bye!"
Maybe he didn't understand that around here the guest usually says their goodbye first, THEN the host says "Bye!"- I'm thinking maybe I could take the time to explain it to this guy, but by that time I'm out the door and my main priority is timing the light on Colfax so I can grab my bike and escape clean if this guy and his posse snap when they realize that I never planned to "Buy."
I don't think I'll be back to try the falafel. I don't know if the Wi-Fi works, but I'm guessing this place is about as "hot spot" as it is "cafe."
Nine thumbs down.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. Funny review. There are Armenians gangs in the area. I use to live in nearby

[villager]

13. Given that it started with the posting of a neighborhood atrocity, this has become quite

...an interesting thread, in terms of discussing things "behind the scenes" --or unseen -- in our local neighborhoods...

[mudplanet]

16. Maybe that same guy was rude to the wrong customer one too many times

[Yunomi]

5. Sounds like "Lost"

where Sayid (in the alternate plot thread) shoots all the gangsters in the empty restaurant.

[kestrel91316]

6. Persian mafia? Armenian mafia? There are LOTS of shady

middle eastern and "mediterranean" businesses 'round these parts. But the cops are too busy pulling people over for burned out turn signals to bother looking into it.

[sam sarrha]

7. Blood Feud..? if it was where i grew up.. it'd be about Cocaine or Herion

[kestrel91316]

9. Blood feud would be my guess, or simple financial dispute/loansharking.

Two doors down from my office a few years ago (after 9/11) the Feds raided a TINY 200 sf "tax/bookkeeping" office run by the Persians who also had the dry cleaning place nextdoor. Apparently it was actually one of the traditional Middle Eastern financial transfer/"loan" places and they didn't wind up in any trouble in the long run, but Bush's thugs sure had them scared for a time.

[a la izquierda]

10. that sounds eerily familiar.

we had feds working out of a tiny office in the building i worked at in glendale. they were never forthcoming about their activities, except to say (on 9/11) that they were looking into suspicious activities/businesses in the area.
freaked the hell out of me.

[zonkers]

11. Sounds like you know the neighborhood. It sure gets hot there in the summer.

[AlphaCentauri]

4. It may have a relation to this case

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ixs5G5f4J16t7lHb8q_pW_9nBSowD9EOL5880

More than a year after finding her father and sister shot to death in their apartment, a 14-year-old girl discovered her mother fatally shot behind the wheel of her car in an attack that appeared to be connected to the earlier killings, police said Monday.

Karine Hakobyan, 38, a nursing assistant at Childrens Hospital, was found Friday behind the wheel of her Honda CRV with a gunshot wound to the back of her head.

Detectives investigating the killing of her husband Khachik Safaryan, 43, and their 9-year-old daughter Lucine said there appeared to be a link between the crimes.

"We're working on a theory that was developed in the previous homicides," police Detective Dan Myers said. He cautioned, however, that investigators had yet to uncover definitive evidence connecting the deaths.

[haele]

8. There was a "barbeque" resturant near one of the places I lived that was strangely like that-

East county San Diego, nice location on a major street near the freeway onramp - set back from the street, lots of parking. Open odd hours (you had to look for the sign to be on). The parking lot never seemed to had more than one car other than the owner's van, and usually early in the morning or just before closing.
The one time I ate there (while I was in the process of buying the house a block down from there), the person I was with and I were the only people there, and it took the owner/cook about 5 minutes to even notice we had walked in and come from the back. The food was crappy, cheap cuts rolled in just table salt and black pepper, coated with catsup, and right from the industrial-sized can or tub potato salad, veggies and beans to go with the food. And the place smelled more like the dry-cleaner's two doors down than a barbeque joint.

We found out later the owner was a medically retired city cop who was cooking meth for the people behind him and it was a "beat the warrant" situation. When the neighbors who were selling got wind they were going to get raided, they'd toss everything over the brick wall into his back dumpster. When he got wind he was going to get searched, he'd toss everything over the fence into their back yard. It was actually a major operation.

According to the neighbors, he had bought the resturant-which was apparently a halfway decent Texas bbq place - from the original owner about four years previously. And he stayed in business until there was a massive block raid by the feds five years after that one time I ate there.

Haele

[oberliner]

14. Police: 4 people killed at LA restaurant targeted

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police were searching Sunday for at least one gunman who killed four people and wounded two others at a San Fernando Valley restaurant.

Investigators believe the victims in Saturday's shooting at the Hot Spot Cafe in Valley Village were targeted, said Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese.

"We don't have a crazed gunman running around North Hollywood that presents an immediate threat to public safety, to anyone in their homes or businesses in the area," Albanese said. "However, this is also not a random act of violence, this was an intentional act."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hIN0ItBcIfQRWYIsO6ZtIN2rRUngD9ESCA300

[Born_A_Truman]

15. The locals interviewed on the news last night said the place creeped them out

One guy said he thought it was a front for something. Odd. I used to live in Studio City but I don't remember this place. I'll ask my daughter about it, they used to live in Valley Village.