Man Sought in 2 Fatal Shootings Surrenders

A Burbank man charged with killing two women and injuring two others in a shooting spree at a neighbor’s house turned himself in early Friday, ending a police search and relieving members of his family who feared that he might take his own life.

Thomas Paul Humenik, 25, walked into the Burbank Police Department with a friend and surrendered about 12:50 a.m., Lt. Bob Giles said. He was being held without bail at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.

A rifle was also turned in, but it was not certain if it was used in Wednesday’s rampage, sparked by Humenik’s conviction hours earlier on assault charges in a dispute involving a neighbor, Detective Eric Rosoff said.

Humenik was sentenced Wednesday to three years probation and ordered to pay an $810 fine for hitting neighbor Jack Donald Boyd, 75, during an argument ostensibly over Boyd’s trimming of a rose bush. Infuriated at the conviction, Humenik allegedly burst into Boyd’s house Wednesday afternoon and started shooting.

The gunfire killed Boyd’s wife, Merle Ester Boyd, 73. Her friend, Sheila Iris Young, 45, died later from a gunshot wound to the chest. Geraldine Correll, 70, was struck in the shoulder; Elfriede Brauchle, 48, was hit by flying glass. Boyd was not home during the attack.

Rosoff said Humenik, who lived with his brother, mother and grandfather, had no prior criminal record.

Also Friday, Humenik’s car was found in Angeles National Forest near Angeles Crest Highway and San Gabriel Canyon Road, but it was uncertain whether he was at that location while on the run.

“Maybe in the next few days we’ll get a glimpse as to what he did and what his thought process was,” Rosoff said.

Family members who last spoke to Humenik on Wednesday night expressed relief that he was still alive because he had threatened to commit suicide.

“Thank God he’s safe,” said his brother, Ed Humenik.

Friends of Humenik on Friday characterized him as quiet, but paranoid, adding that he was angry at neighbors who organized a petition drive to prevent him from working on old cars in the street in front of his house.

“Maybe they just pushed him too far,” said his friend, Carlos Leonardo Jr., 24, of Walnut Hills. “He just lost it. He cracked.”