Reward Offered in Fatal Attack at Restaurant

A $25,000 reward has been offered for the arrest and conviction of a man who fatally shot the manager of a Wilshire area Carl’s Jr. fast food restaurant in a robbery, police said Saturday.

The manager, Kari Kaye, 30, of Santa Monica, was shot Friday night near 5th Street and Western Avenue, Detective Sherman Oaks said.

Officials of the company, headquartered in Orange County, told Wilshire area detectives a reward would be given for information about the shooting.

Police officers arrived at the restaurant and found Kaye’s body outside about 7 p.m.

Kaye was leaving the store to attend a corporation meeting and was walking a short distance from the door to her car when she was attacked.

Several witnesses told police they saw a man later run west on 5th Street.

The motive for the shooting was not apparent, but Oaks said it was later determined Kaye was the intended victim.

Her purse was not found in the area and her husband was checking to determine if other items were missing.

We Tip, a witness information service, will be used for further details about the attack. Oaks said witnesses also can call Wilshire detectives with information that will be “kept in strictest confidence.”

Kaye was the third woman murdered in the area within a week, Oaks said. However, the deaths of a 17-year-old girl, gunned down on the street, and a 24-year-old woman stabbed in a murder-suicide were unrelated, he said.