Woman Slain, Gunman Killed at Mall in Canoga Park

A man with a rifle shot a woman to death outside a Canoga Park shopping mall Saturday and moments later was killed by an off-duty Los Angeles police officer who works part time as a mall security guard, Los Angeles police reported.

The double killing occurred about 1 p.m. in the parking lot of Topanga Plaza shopping center, where the woman, identified as Jan Lisa Golden, 26, of Canoga Park, worked at the May Co. department store, Lt. Charles Higbie said.

The gunman was identified as Frank Wayne Baker, 36, a transient.

When Golden left the department store on her lunch break, Higbie said, she walked through the parking lot on the east side of the mall and then ran as Baker chased her in his car near the 6600 block of Owensmouth Avenue.

The gunman got out of his car at the end of a row of parked vehicles, ran up to Golden and beat her over the head with the butt of a .22-caliber rifle, Higbie said.

Baker shot Golden at least six times as she lay on the ground, Higbie said.

Meanwhile, Officer Michael Moore, a five-year Los Angeles Police Department veteran, saw the chase from the entrance of a Montgomery Ward store about 100 yards away.

Officer Threatened

Moore, a patrol officer assigned to the Police Department’s Southwest Division, ran to the scene as the man was shooting Golden. Moore, 26, identified himself, and the man turned and pointed his rifle at the officer, Higbie said. Moore then shot Baker twice, Higbie said.

Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

Higbie said the motive for the shooting was “apparently a marital dispute,” although he said he did not know if the victims were married.