GLENDALE : 4 Suspects in Court in Boy’s Slaying

More than 100 people packed a Glendale courtroom Thursday for the arraignment of four suspects in the stabbing death of a 17-year-old boy.

As the tense crowd left the courtroom, shoving matches broke out in the hallway outside the courtroom among friends and family of the victim and the accused.

Tino Safarian, Roni Malik Hovsepians, Tony Ghamelian and Boris Sarokhian, all 18, face murder and attempted murder charges in connection with the death of Tony Petrossian Tuesday afternoon during a brawl at Brand Park.

Instead of entering pleas Thursday, the suspects’ attorneys asked Glendale Municipal Judge Joseph De Vanon to postpone the arraignment to June 27. The cases also were transferred to the Pasadena courthouse.

‘It’s very emotional. Nobody can believe this is happening,” said Arthur Haritoonian, 20, who said Tony was his best friend. “Myself, I just saw him [Tony] the other day. I can’t believe he’s gone.”

No one was arrested in the courthouse scuffle, but sheriff’s deputies briefly closed off all entrances to the building and ordered the crowd to disperse, officials said.

Also on Thursday, authorities revealed new details about the melee that left Tony, a senior at Hoover High School, dead and his friend, Armen Davoodian, 18, with a stab wound to his right thigh.

Police said the trouble began about three weeks before the stabbing, when Davoodian gave a car stereo amplifier to Ghamelian, who promised to pay $50 for it. But several days later, Ghamelian brought the amplifier back, saying it was broken and refusing to pay.

According to a police report, Davoodian demanded the money and another suspect, Sarokhian, eventually agreed to pay Ghamelian’s debt for him.

However, the money never materialized and on Tuesday, the two sides exchanged words and then agreed to settle their differences at Brand Park after school, said Glendale police spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian.

Davoodian reportedly sent his older cousin to threaten the two others who, in response, enlisted the help of friends Safarian--who brought a hunting knife to the park--and Hovsepians, who brought a folding knife, police said.

“Up to that point, [Tony] was not involved in this incident at all,” Keuroghelian said. The boy became entangled in the matter when he agreed to come to the park to protect Davoodian, police said.

According to witnesses, Tony tried to break up the fight and was at first kicked, then stabbed, by Safarian, police said. Hovsepians reportedly stabbed Davoodian as he was being knocked to the ground.

Witnesses later led police to a dumpster near San Fernando Road and Grandview Avenue, where two knives believed used in the attack were found, Keuroghelian said.

Tony was rushed in a friend’s car to Thompson Memorial Medical Center where he was pronounced dead Tuesday evening, police said. Davoodian was treated there and released.

Haritoonian, who said he had known Tony for more than 10 years and had taught him how to skateboard, described the boy as a friendly, popular student who was athletic and “full of love.”

He said his friend dreamed one day of becoming a peace officer like his older brother Ara, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

“He loved his friends. He never hurt anybody,” he said. “I wish I could have been there that day. I wouldn’t have let him fight.”