Transient Arrested in Robbery Spree Slaying

A suspect in a 40-minute robbery spree that left one victim dead was arrested Thursday morning after he was sighted leaving a Sun Valley bar, Los Angeles police reported.

Russell Graham, 34, a transient, was arrested at 12:30 a.m. after police pulled over a pickup truck he drove away from a bar at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Sheldon Street, Detective Al Ferrand said. Graham was being held without bail on suspicion of murder at the Foothill Division jail in Pacoima.

Ferrand said that on Wednesday Graham fatally shot a 22-year-old man near a phone booth outside a 7-Eleven store at Woodman Avenue and Osborne Street in Panorama City. The victim, whose name was not released, apparently was shot during a robbery attempt, Ferrand said.

Shortly after the noon shooting, the same suspect--in another attempted robbery--fired shots at two men standing in the yard of a house in the 12200 block of Truesdale Street, police said. The shots missed, and the gunman fled.

Then, at 12:40 p.m., the gunman robbed a market in the 10100 block of Stonehurst Avenue, police said.

Police were able to identify Graham from descriptions of the gunman and his truck provided by witnesses, Ferrand said. Investigators watched a Sun Valley bar he was known to frequent, and his pickup truck was sighted there early Thursday.