LOS ANGELES COUNTY : 45 Weekend Homicides Counted by Coroner

After tallying all the deaths from last weekend, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office says there were 45 homicides between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Monday, according to spokesman Bob Dambacher.

The Times reported that 28 people died in violence during the weekend--one of the worst death tolls ever in Los Angeles. Of that total, 25 were shot and three were stabbed.

The coroner’s office attributed the differing totals to its definition of homicide, which technically means any killing of a person by another. To arrive at 45 homicides, officials included five hit-and-run deaths, two cases of vehicular manslaughter, one case of elder abuse and one narcotics overdose. They also counted seven additional gunshot deaths, although some may have been accidental, and one beating death that was not reported during the weekend.

The coroner keeps no records of which homicides are determined to be criminal.