Suspect in Laguna Beach Slaying Faces Arraignment

A 19-year-old Rubidoux man has been jailed as the prime suspect in the slaying of a Laguna Beach motorist shot down in an alleyway here after a roadside argument Saturday night.

Police used license plate information from witnesses to track down Dzevad Joe Dakaj, who is being held in connection with the shooting of Loren J. Chadwick, 26, as he and friends fled from a confrontation involving three carloads of young people, Laguna Beach Police Lt. Danell Adams said.

Two passengers in Dakaj’s black BMW were charged as accomplices in the shooting. Tom Camaj, 21, and Victor Camaj, 18, brothers from Downey, are being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, Adams said. Dakaj is in the Laguna Beach Jail awaiting arraignment today.

The slaying was the violent conclusion to a showdown that apparently began on the narrow strip of highway leading through the hills surrounding this seaside city.

Passengers in two cars exchanged hostile words and gestures after a perceived slight while speeding down Laguna Canyon Road, and when the cars reached the 300 block of Broadway downtown the occupants emptied out for a scuffle, Adams said.

Police are still piecing together the events from many witness accounts, but Adams said it appears the car with Chadwick and three friends was boxed in to the front by the car it had been dueling with and, from behind, by a third car. Dakaj was in the third car. As Chadwick tussled with the driver of the front car, Dakaj allegedly pulled a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun from beneath his car seat and approached the melee, Adams said. The man Chadwick was fighting with was a friend of Dakaj, Adams said, citing the account of the incident Dakaj gave police.

Dakaj “has told us he thought his friend was hurt, that was his thinking when he got his gun,” Adams said.

The friends who were trying to separate the two combatants saw the gun and scattered, with Chadwick racing down a narrow alleyway, witnesses told police. The shooter stepped to the mouth of the alley and coolly took aim at the fleeing man, Adams said.

“We have a slew of witnesses, people in restaurants or driving by, and more stepping forward all the time, and that seems to be the consistent strain here,” Adams said. “He was relatively calm.”

Four shots were fired, one slug passing through Chadwick’s hand and lodging in the bumper of a nearby car, Adams said. Another round struck the former Laguna Beach High School student square in the back, piercing his heart.

Police arrested Dakaj on Sunday at a friend’s house in Downey, where he surrendered without incident. The gun believed to be the weapon used in the slaying was also recovered, Adams said.

Dakaj was located after the car’s license plates led police to the Camaj brothers, who yielded information that led to their friend. The role and culpability of the siblings is still under investigation, police said.

The friends of Chadwick were still grappling with the abrupt loss of life. The news that Dakaj was named the prime suspect brought some sense of closure Monday, but family and friends were still grief-stricken.

“I’m so glad to hear,” said Susanne Dale, whose son, Lyf Todd Dale, was with Chadwick the night of the shooting. “This has all been so, so difficult for us. I feel sorry for [Dakaj] at the same time.”

Viewing services for Chadwick will take place from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at the McCormick & Sons Mortuary in Laguna Beach at 1795 Laguna Canyon Road. A graveside service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Pacific View Cemetery in Newport Beach.

Times correspondent Julie Fate Sullivan contributed to this report.