Police Cite Racial Overtones in Slaying at Scene of Party

A shooting that killed a 25-year-old party-goer Saturday had racial overtones but was not gang-related, police say.

A 17-year-old suspect is being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall on suspicion of murder. He faces a hearing Wednesday.

Detective Rick Swanston said the shooting occurred when six carloads of youths, most of them Asians, attempted to crash a large party at Farrallone and Vanowen avenues in Canoga Park attended by about 100 teen-agers and adults, most of them white. Racial slurs and obscenities were exchanged between the alleged party-crashers and people inside the house, Swanston said. Several fistfights broke out, and a volley of beer bottles followed.

Thomas Myers was shot in the chest after he came out of the house to check on his pickup truck, Swanston said.

Friends of the suspect deny that they were trying to crash the party, saying they had become lost while looking for another party.

When a member of their group relieved himself against a tree, racial epithets and beer bottles greeted their arrival, the suspect’s friends said.

The suspect doesn’t drink or carry a gun, according to his friends. They say it was impossible for the suspect to have shot Myers because he was fighting with someone else at the time.

But Swanston said the fight ended before the shooting started.

The detective said eyewitnesses identified the suspect as the person who shot Myers, adding that the investigation continues.