Man Slain in Ambush at Echo Park Home
A Los Angeles man who neighbors said was a neurosurgeon at a Burbank hospital was shot and killed as he arrived at his Echo Park-area home early Sunday, police said.
Officials at St. Joseph Hospital, however, said they had no employment records for Brian Alton O’Neale, 47, who was shot from ambush just after parking his car at his home in the 300 block of North Burlington Avenue.
“This situation is still unfolding as we speak,” Los Angeles police homicide Detective James Leahy said Sunday afternoon. He said two separate sources had told police that O’Neale was a physician.
“Somebody waited for him to come home and shot him,” Leahy said. “It appears to be an ambush, execution-type shooting.”
The detective said O’Neale was shot once in the head with a shotgun from a distance of between 10 and 20 feet. The shotgun was recovered at the scene, Leahy said.
Investigators said they have no direct witnesses to the shooting, and no arrests have been made.
Neighbors told police that O’Neale had lived in the neighborhood for about four years and he was known for his donations to poor people in the area.
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