Victim’s Co-Worker Sought in Slaying
Los Angeles police were searching Sunday for a man believed to have shot and killed a co-worker in the parking lot of a Canoga Park apartment complex.
Responding to a report of shots fired early Sunday morning, police found Raul Gonzalez, 25, dead from several gunshot wounds at an apartment building in the 8300 block of Variel Avenue, said Sgt. Fred Rembold of the Devonshire Division.
Based on interviews with witnesses, Rembold said, detectives suspect that Simon Chavez Sanchez, 26, who worked with Gonzalez and used to live in the apartment complex, had returned to accuse Gonzalez of spreading rumors about him.
As the argument escalated, Rembold said, the two men moved out of Gonzalez’s apartment and into the lot.
Witnesses said they saw Sanchez flee on a bicycle after he allegedly fired several shots at Gonzalez at about 1:40 a.m.
Sanchez was described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 165 pounds with dark hair and eyes, and a mustache. Rembold said he has relatives in North Hollywood and in Mexicali, Mexico. No information was available Sunday about where Sanchez lives or where he and Gonzalez worked.
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