Fatal Shooting May Be Tied to Holdups

The fatal shooting of a young caterer and the wounding of her companion, a lawyer, may be tied to a rash of armed robberies in the Mid-Wilshire area, police said Monday.

During the hours before and after Ann Yao, 31, was killed and Lyle Nirenberg, 27, was wounded, at least five other robberies by two or more armed suspects were committed in the surrounding area, Los Angeles Police Detective Michael Gannon said.

Yao and Nirenberg were sitting in her car near the intersection of Wilshire and Lucerne boulevards about 2 a.m. Saturday when they were approached by two gunmen who intended to rob the couple, police said.

One suspect shot Yao in the head, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Nirenberg was shot in the shoulder and chin, and a bullet grazed his forehead, Gannon said. But his injuries were apparently not severe and he was released from UCLA Medical Center after receiving treatment. The suspects stole Nirenberg’s car and other belongings.

Police are now investigating whether Yao and Nirenberg’s attackers are the same people who committed the other robberies.

The string of holdups occurred over a 12-hour period from about 6 p.m. Friday to dawn Saturday in a wide mid-city area from Normandie Avenue to La Cienega Boulevard, police said. In the robberies, at least two male suspects intercepted victims on their way to parked cars or homes and stole cash, jewelry and watches, Gannon said.

Descriptions of the suspects are sketchy, but in each of the robberies the men either brandished a revolver or claimed to have a concealed gun. But in none of the other incidents was anyone hurt.

“It’s not unusual to have (suspects) stop after a couple of robberies, buy some cocaine or drugs, and with a false sense of security, well-being, invincibility, plus an absence of conscience, they get braver, they get bolder,” Gannon said.

“From what I saw from the crime scene and the autopsy, the guy who did that killing has no heart,” the detective continued. “Neither (suspect) had to shoot to complete the robbery. It was a classic cold-blooded killing.”

Meanwhile, Yao’s friends and co-workers were left struggling to make sense of her death. A French major from Colgate University and a former student at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America before joining the More Than a Mouthful catering service, Yao was described as friendly, smart and personable.

“She’d be chopping carrots and break into song,” Gary Richardson, a writer who knew Yao for seven years, said Monday. “She was so savvy and tolerant of other people. It doesn’t make any sense they would waste her.”

Efforts to reach Nirenberg were unsuccessful Monday. An administrator at the law firm where he has been employed for the past year, Strange & Hoey, said he was “real shook up” but recovering from his wounds.