School District Official Shot in Struggle With Robber

A Los Angeles school district official was shot and slightly wounded during an apparent “follow-home robbery” attempt in the underground garage of his Tarzana condominium, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

Daniel M. Isaacs, 50, assistant superintendent in charge of high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, was treated for a shoulder wound and released from Tarzana Medical Center after the shooting about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, Detective Robert Johansen said.

Isaacs and his wife, Sandy, had just driven into the garage of their condominium in the 18700 block of Hatteras Street when a gunman slipped through the open garage door, Johansen said.

“She saw the man with a gun and screamed, and her husband turned and confronted the suspect,” Johansen said. “There was a verbal exchange, and the suspect fired twice.”

One bullet struck Daniel Isaacs in the left shoulder, and the gunman ran from the garage without taking anything from the victims, police said. No arrests were made.

“It has all appearances of a follow-home robbery,” said Police Lt. William Gaida.

Detectives believe the gunman, who may have had an accomplice waiting in a car outside the garage, followed the Isaacs’ Mercedes-Benz from a restaurant on Ventura Boulevard in Encino.

“They have an expensive car,” Johansen said. “We assume that, if in fact they were followed, it was because of the car.”

In late 1988 and early 1989, the west San Fernando Valley area near Ventura Boulevard was plagued by more than 40 follow-home robberies, in which residents driving expensive cars were trailed to their homes by gunmen and robbed. But in March, police broke up a ring of 15 suspected robbers, and the rash of robberies ended.