Police Shoot Suspect in Murder of Teen-Ager

A man fitting the description of a suspect sought in the kidnaping and murder of a Chatsworth teen-ager and the abduction and wounding of her companion was shot while running from police Tuesday, officials said.

The man, whose name was not released, was shot twice by two officers as he ran from a mini-motor home parked in the 2800 block of Newell Street near the Los Angeles River and tried to climb a fence to escape questioning, police spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke said.

The man was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where he was in serious condition.

“He fits the description as does the mobile home, but we’re not sure yet if he is the murder suspect,” Cooke said.

Reward Offered

The 12:30 p.m. shooting came just hours after county supervisors approved by a unanimous vote a $10,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the assailants.

“This is one we really want to crack,” said Lt. John Zorn, the chief investigator in the case, calling the killing of the Chatsworth teen-ager and wounding of her friend brutal.

Wendy Masuhara, 14, and her 13-year-old girlfriend, whose name has been withheld, were abducted from their neighborhood in the Chatsworth area shortly before midnight Friday by a man and a woman driving a mini-motor home, police said. Both girls were shot in the head.

Wendy’s body was found in the trunk of an abandoned station wagon early Saturday near the Chatsworth Reservoir, about five miles from where the teen-agers were abducted. The other girl was left for dead, but staggered several hundred yards with a bullet lodged in her neck until a passing motorist discovered her, Zorn said.

The surviving girl provided police with a description of her abductors. The teen-agers were lured into the mini-motor home by the woman, who claimed to have engine trouble and asked the girls for help, police said.

“Although injured, the girl has been incredibly helpful in the investigation,” Zorn said.

Isolated Street

A woman living on Newell Street called police Tuesday morning after noticing a mobile home fitting the description of the killers’ vehicle parked near her house on the isolated street near the junction of the Golden State and Glendale freeways.

When officers arrived to investigate, a man fitting the killer’s description ran from the mobile home, refused to stop when police yelled to him and began to climb a chain-link fence in an attempt to get away, Cooke said.

The man was also being investigated by detectives from the San Fernando Valley in an unrelated non-homicide case, Cooke said.

Police were still searching for a woman described by the injured girl as being white, between 25 and 40 years old with straight, shoulder-length brown hair, 5 feet 4 inches tall with a thin build and wearing a white T-shirt and jeans.