Shooting Victim Arrested in Slaying

A North Hollywood man who told authorities he was the victim of an abduction and shooting has been arrested as a suspect in a San Francisco murder, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

Police found Elijah Franklin, 40, who had been shot repeatedly and left for dead, beside the Golden State Freeway in Sylmar on Aug. 2. Because of injuries he could not speak, but managed through writing and sign language to tell detectives that his name was Robert Silver and that four men had abducted him from his North Hollywood home, shot him and dumped him from a car.

Detective Bob Searle said detectives sought to confirm the victim’s identity by checking his fingerprints. They learned Tuesday that Silver was Franklin, who was wanted on a warrant by San Francisco police charging him with a drug-related murder Aug. 14, 1987, Searle said.

“He had been on the run ever since,” Searle said. “We think he had been in this area about a year.”

Franklin was transferred from Northridge Hospital Medical Center to the jail ward of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and is expected to be taken to San Francisco after he recovers.

Searle said no motive or suspects were known in the attack on Franklin last week, but investigators believe that it was unrelated to the killing two years ago.