Man Arrested in Fatal Shooting at Area Mall

Two men who had been feuding over an allegedly stolen gun encountered each other at a shopping mall, where one shot the other to death while attempting to put him under citizen’s arrest, police said Thursday.

Ryan Willis, 23, of Woodland Hills, was shot outside the Fallbrook Mall on Wednesday night, the second fatal shooting at the mall this summer.

Nicholas Todd Granger, 20, of West Hills was arrested on suspicion of murder and held in lieu of $1-million bail, police said.

Granger sighted Willis, an old acquaintance, about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the mall parking lot in front of L.A. Tronics, Detective Rick Swanston of the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Granger confronted Willis, accusing him of stealing a gun from Granger’s house in February and tried to put Willis under citizen’s arrest, police said. Witnesses told police that when Willis began to walk toward Granger, Granger shot him once in the chest from a distance of five feet, Swanston said.

Granger told police he shot Willis in self-defense. Willis was unarmed at the time, but officers found a large machete in his car about 60 feet away, Swanston said.

After the shooting, Granger ran into the electronics store and told a clerk to call 911, Swanston said.

Swanston said Willis may have been a member of a tagging crew or a gang but that Granger is not a gang member.

Granger filed a police report on the gun theft in February. “Willis allegedly struck him and took the gun,” Swanston said, and a warrant was issued. Officers told Granger that “if he saw him to call police and we would send a car out to arrest him on the warrant,” Swanston said.

The shooting was seen by at least 20 people, police said.

L.A. Tronics store manager Carol Frisby said some of her employees were greatly upset. “They had to see the dead body in front of the store for hours,” Frisby said.

Frisby said that on Thursday morning she had to clean away graffiti painted on the storefront and nearby sidewalk by Willis’ friends. By late Thursday a single red rose lay where Willis had died.

In the previous slaying at the same mall, Ramtin Shaolian was killed and four other people were injured behind the General Cinema Theaters in June by a group of teen-agers who shot at them from a passing car, police said.