Man Held in Death of Suspected Car Burglar

A man who reportedly held a suspected car burglar at gunpoint, and then fatally shot him moments before police arrived, was booked Sunday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

In their first statement after the Saturday night shooting, police said Robert Cooper, 44, had been holding 17-year-old Henry Paul Velasquez at bay, waiting for officers, when Velasquez lunged at him. Cooper responded by firing his weapon three times, police said.

Cooper was taken into custody immediately after the 7:30 p.m. shooting pending “further investigation.” Five hours later police booked him. But police Sunday declined to comment on why they believed the shooting exceeded self-defense.

An arrest in such a situation normally means that detectives’ investigation “has indicated that self-defense is not so clear-cut,” said Cmdr. William Booth.

Police said Cooper’s shots hit Velasquez twice in the chest and hand. Velasquez died Sunday morning of cardiopulmonary arrest at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center after undergoing surgery.

Praise From Neighbors

While Cooper sat in Parker Center jail in lieu of $22,000 bail Sunday, waiting to see whether the district attorney’s office will file charges against him, he was being praised by his neighbors in the 3200 block of Descanso Drive.

The section of Descanso where the shooting took place is a winding hillside street of aging tile-roofed duplexes, apartments and homes just above Sunset Boulevard and just south of the Silver Lake District. Its two lanes are separated by a sloping dirt median filled with trees that are plastered with “Neighborhood Watch” stickers. Several neighbors said Sunday that they live in fear of crime from street gangs who they believe gather nearby on Sunset.

“Everybody has the same reaction: They’re just glad the crook was the one who got hurt instead of another law-abiding citizen,” said a leader of the block’s Neighborhood Watch group.

Added another resident, who like the Neighborhood Watch leader requested anonymity: “We are in a perpetual battle protecting our homes against robberies, car thefts and attacks from that nest of what goes on down (on Sunset). . . . You don’t dare leave your car out here. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Bernhard Goetz Incident

The shooting, she said, carries the same message to criminals as “that thing in New York,” in which Bernhard H. Goetz shot four robbery suspects on a subway: “If you do these types of things, you might get hurt. . . . People can just finally get angry and say we’re going to do something about that.”

Neighbors said Cooper owns an apartment building across the street from where the shooting took place. According to accounts by police and neighbors, Cooper saw the suspect breaking into cars on Descanso and went outside around 7:30 p.m. with a firearm. Police said Cooper told them he found Velasquez sitting inside a car that had been burglarized and that he held Velasquez at gunpoint while a neighbor called police.

A woman who lives near the shooting scene said she saw police cars come down the block, responding to that telephone call.

“Right after that,” she said, “I heard the shots.”

Lillian Danny, who said she had known Cooper for a number of years, said Cooper “minds his own business. He didn’t want any trouble. I never saw him lose his temper. He said once that if anybody threatened him, he’d call the police.”

Another resident, Peggy Boyer, said she had lived there for 22 years without a residential burglary, but acknowledged that the other side of Descanso--where the shooting took place--is more vulnerable because many of the residences are apartments.

Besides, she said, “I’ve got this dog that barks an awful lot.”