Arleta Man Charged in Fatal Shooting of Bartender in 1993
An Arleta man was charged Wednesday in the April, 1993, shooting death of a Chatsworth man, originally believed to have been killed in a carjacking that took place within two miles of another fatal carjacking that occurred about the same time, authorities said.
Edward Frias, 24, who had been sentenced to prison last month in another killing, was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder Tuesday at the Van Nuys jail, Los Angeles Police Detective Jim Rahm said.
The victim, Thomas MacDowell, a 32-year-old aspiring filmmaker and a bartender at the L.A. Cabaret Comedy Club in Encino, was shot to death about 3 a.m. April 21, 1993, while parking his car at his girlfriend’s apartment near the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Hesby Street. After the shooting, MacDowell managed to drive 100 feet into an alley, where police found his body about 3:30 a.m.
The gunman fired the fatal shots through the driver’s side window of MacDowell’s 1987 BMW in what was then believed to be a carjacking attempt.
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