Killing No Longer a Stranger to Suburbs : Crime: Homicides in the San Fernando Valley are rising more rapidly than in Los Angeles as a whole. Brutal, senseless slayings have residents worried.

A churchgoing couple are slain in their Granada Hills home, their two children, ages 4 and 6, are not spared.

Less than a month later, a hard-working catering truck owner is stabbed and shot to death, his body left with those of his 13-year-old son and three employees off a remote canyon road in Sun Valley.

Earlier this year, two teen-age friends are forced to lie on the floor of a Subway sandwich shop in Northridge, then both are shot in the head execution-style after a robbery.

Homicide is on the rise in the San Fernando Valley, once America’s quintessential suburb, now a place of increasing urban ills and fears. As of Dec. 7, according to the most recent police figures, 137 people had died by violence this year in the Valley--a 14.5% increase over last year. The discovery in La Tuna Canyon on Tuesday of the bodies of Ismael Cervantes Sr. and four others from his catering truck brought the official total to 142. Two other people were shot and stabbed to death Thursday and Friday.

Many of the deaths have been barely noticed, grim statistics chalked up to gangs and drugs. Others--such as those of the Yoo family of Granada Hills, Cervantes, and childhood friends James White and Brian Berry--stunned the city because of their hideous circumstances and the victims’ apparent innocence.

“It used to be considered that the Valley was an area that was separate from the rest of the city and that the downtown areas had violence while the Valley was luckily immune,” Van Nuys Municipal Judge Michael S. Luros said.

“But it appears the violence has exceeded the bounds,” Luros continued. “The scenarios of finding a family of four murdered or five people from a lunch truck dead were things you read about happening elsewhere. Now you have them here. People are becoming very concerned and they are scared.”

Violence is on the rise throughout Los Angeles where the year-to-date homicide tally as of Dec. 7 was 982, rapidly approaching a 1980 record of 1,028.

But in the Valley, homicides are increasing at more than twice the rate of the whole city, police records show.

Between 1989 and the present, according to police statistics, killings rose about 18.4% throughout the city and 38% in the Valley. At the same time, however, the Valley still shows the lowest number of homicides, and the most solved, compared with the Police Department’s three other area bureaus in the south, central and west sides of the city.

“We used to say we kill more people in traffic accidents than murder, but that’s not the case anymore,” said Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, the Valley’s top police official. He said there has been an average of nine traffic fatalities a month in the Valley this year, while killings have averaged about 12 a month.

Residents can’t help but be aware of the violence, and they are increasingly anxious about it, several police and civilian sources said. Kroeker recalled attending a recent neighborhood meeting where a resident literally clutched him and asked, “What are you officers going to do about this horrible crime?”

“They just feel it’s right next door,” Kroeker said.

“It is something you think about all the time,” said Stuart Schlosser, owner of the Subway franchise where White and Berry, both 19, were killed last June. “Things are happening in the Valley that never happened before.”

The man charged with the killings was a former employee who was facing financial difficulties and used the money he stole to rent an apartment, authorities said. He is awaiting trial.

“He knew there was money here but what made him go that far, who knows,” Schlosser said. “Who knows? There are a lot of things going on that there may not be answers for.”

Drugs, gangs, the poor economy, overcrowding, a rootless society and a proliferation of handguns are among the reasons suggested by police, academics and clergy.

“We need to get at the source and give youngsters a more meaningful context to their lives,” said Don Locher, district superintendent of the United Methodist Church. “They’re at sea about a lot of things: sexuality, job uncertainty, the way they’re pummeled hour by hour” to be consumers.

Lewis Yablonsky, a criminologist at Cal State Northridge and the author of a book on gangs, said the Valley’s increased ethnic diversity has heightened residents’ suspicions and has added to the tendency to dehumanize others.

In the last decade, Anglos have dropped from 74.8% to 58.4% of the Valley’s population, while the number of Latinos and Asians has roughly doubled and the number of blacks has risen from 2.6% to 3.4% of Valley residents. The Valley’s population has increased from about 1.3 million to 1.5 million, according to the 1990 census.

“Where people relate to each other almost as objects there’s a tendency toward higher incidences of crime in general and violence in particular,” Yablonsky said.

“Instead of identifying someone as ‘Joe,’ ” he continued, “he or she is identified as a Korean, or a thisa or a thata. The human connection is diminished.”

Yablonsky also said a sense of hopelessness among youths, bred by poverty and intensified by the poor economy, contributes to the popularity of gangs which inevitably leads to violence. “The gang becomes a kind of false refuge where they acquire some quasi-sense of belonging, and violence is the commodity of gangs,” Yablonsky said.

“The more senseless the violence is, the higher status the kid gets,” he continued. “For a gang kid, learning how to read and write effectively is difficult but wielding a knife or a gun requires no special skills. So you have the marginal ones finding their way into gangs.”

Police Lt. William Gaida said that despite 28 years on the job, he is chilled by gang members’ apparent lack of regard for life.

“It’s like they show absolutely no remorse for taking a human life, absolutely none,” Gaida said.

Gang rivalry is to blame for 42 deaths in the Valley so far this year.

Other highly publicized cases in the Valley this year include that of rookie police Officer Tina Kerbrat, the city’s first female officer to die in the line of duty. Kerbrat, 34, was shot in the head with a .357 magnum revolver as she stopped two men for drinking in public on a Sun Valley street. Her partner returned fire, fatally shooting gunman Jose Amaya, 32, at the scene.

In March, Camille Gibbs, 45, of Canoga Park was fatally shot by a thief in the parking lot of Topanga Plaza Mall as she loaded her car with packages. Police arrested Emelito Halili Exmundo, 28, of Canoga Park several hours later after he was shot in a struggle with a liquor store owner he was allegedly trying to rob. His trial for Gibbs’ death is under way in Van Nuys Superior Court.

In August, Julian Ramirez Contreras, 51, of Van Nuys was shot to death in the park near the Van Nuys Recreation Center after he questioned an armed man who tried to rob a few dollars from a card game kitty. Police have arrested Lanell Craig Harris, 25, of Van Nuys, who is awaiting trial.

In October, machinist Fernando Hernandez of Van Nuys was fatally shot when he tried to help his girlfriend, who was pushed to the ground during a street robbery. Police have arrested Lamarr Deon Cooks, 18, of Pacoima, who is awaiting trial.

Last month, drummer Vartan Mouradian, 33, of Studio City was shot to death in a North Hollywood restaurant where his band was playing after he hesitated in giving up his possessions to two armed robbers. There have been no arrests.

The Yoo and Cervantes murders also remain under investigation.

The violence is affecting people’s behavior, said Dr. William Arroyo, a psychiatrist who specializes in victims of trauma. Arroyo, who lives in Sherman Oaks, said people are installing electronic security systems and arming themselves.

Others are driving out of their way to avoid risky neighborhoods, and limiting their trips at night, said Arroyo and Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.

Close said he recently met with his area’s police commander because of his group’s concerns about crime.

“Ten, 12, 15 years ago, people moved from the Valley because of busing,” Close said. “Now I see a new concern that the Valley may not be safe to live in.”

A Look at 4 Homicides * Catering truck workers: Found dead in a remote San Fernando Valley canyon Tuesday. Victims: 5 Circumstances: Ismael Cervantes Sr., 43; his son, Ismael Cervantes Jr., 13; Francisco Gasca, 31; and brothers, Heriberto Sandoval, 19, and Jesus Sandoval, 16, were found shot, stabbed and bludgeoned. Bodies were discovered two days after their truck was found abandoned in North Hollywood on Dec. 8. Motive: Unknown. Possibly robbery Suspects: Still at large * Family in their home: Found dead in Granada Hills on Nov. 20. Victims: 4 Circumstances: Hee Wan Yoo, 36; his wife, Gyung Jin, 34, and their children, Pauline, 6, and Kenneth, 4, died of “multiple sharp-force wounds.” Los Angeles Police Department say there was no sign of forced entry and that no weapon was found. Motive: Unknown Suspects: Still at large * Police officer on duty: Shot to death Feb. 11. Victims: 1 Circumstances: Los Angeles Police Officer Tina Kerbrat, 34, was the department’s first female officer killed in the line of duty. She was shot after stepping out of her police car to question two men drinking beer in public. Suspect: Jose Amaya, 32, a Salvadoran national, was fatally wounded during a brief gun battle with the officer’s partner. * Shopper at a mall: Killed March 29. Victims: 1 Circumstances: Camille Gibbs, 45, of Canoga Park, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Topanga Plaza Mall when a man approached Gibbs as she was loading packages into her Corvette and forced her away from the car. She struggled briefly and the gunman shot her in the head, then took her purse and car. Suspect: Emelito Halili Exmundo, 28, of Canoga Park was arrested several hours later after he was shot during a struggle at a Chatsworth liquor store.

Homicides in the Valley (By Police Division) Devonshire Foothill N. Hollywood Van Nuys West Valley Comparing the Valley with citywide totals

% change 1991 from 1989 (thru Dec. 7) 1990 1989 Valley total + 38.4% 137 124 99 Citywide + 18.4% 982 943 829