Worker Shot Boy in Self-Defense, Headmaster Says

A Harvard-Westlake School maintenance worker fired in self-defense when he shot a suspected teenage burglar who confronted him in a dark hallway outside the school’s computer lab, Headmaster Tom Hudnut said Monday.

The employee, who lives in a school-owned house near the private school’s campus on Coldwater Canyon Avenue, tried to protect himself when the masked teenager surprised him and fought with him early Saturday morning, Hudnut said.

“It is our very clear sense that he found himself in a life-threatening situation and was attempting to protect himself,” Hudnut said. “We have no reason to believe he did anything except to act in self-defense.”

Hudnut declined to identify the school employee. Police said the employee fears retaliation by friends of the alleged burglar.

The youth, whose identity was not made public, is not a student at the school, Hudnut said. He remains in serious condition at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his left side, but he is expected to survive, police said.

An attorney hired by the teenager’s family said the high school junior has no criminal record and has never before had trouble with police. Ralph Peretz, an Encino lawyer who has not yet interviewed the boy, criticized the shooting as an overreaction.

“It’s hard to understand why you shoot someone to protect some property,” Peretz said. “It’s like imposing the death penalty on a second-degree burglary.”

Meanwhile, officials at the exclusive school launched a complete review of their security policy after the weekend incident, during which no security guards were present. The school has unarmed daytime guards and routinely hires off-duty Los Angeles police officers through a security firm for nighttime and special-occasion patrols.

Students were told about the incident at assemblies on Monday morning, and Hudnut sent parents a two-page letter.

In it, Hudnut told parents that schools have become targets because of the valuable scientific and technical equipment on campus. Harvard-Westlake, which charges $12,500 a year for tuition, has long had a solid academic reputation and has kept apace with fast-changing computer technology.

“For generations, this was not a problem because nobody was too interested in stealing books or erasers, but, in the present day and age, this is no longer the case,” he wrote.

The maintenance worker, who received a call from a neighbor reporting unusual noises at the campus shortly before 6 a.m., took a loaded handgun and a flashlight to investigate, Hudnut said. When he got there, he found the solid-core front doors of Chalmers Hall broken open and the computer lab door destroyed with an ax.

“He was on his way to call 911 when he was confronted by a suspect and a scuffle ensued,” Hudnut said.

The two struggled and the longtime school employee shot at the teenager, who was much larger than the employee, Hudnut said. He then called police and helped direct them to the wounded youth.

The teenager’s car was impounded near the school, police said.

Police expect to file charges against the youth but have not yet determined whether criminal charges will be sought against the school employee, said Det. Mike Coffey of the LAPD’s North Hollywood station.

The boy, who lives with his divorced father, is a high school junior who comes from a close family with an older sister and brother, Peretz said.

His family has rallied to his bedside. “They’ve spent their time reassuring him that they do love him and that he will recover,” Peretz said.

It was unclear whether the teenager was alone last weekend. Some witnesses said they saw a couple of others fleeing the campus about the same time the employee was confronted by the boy, police and school administrators said. But police have not yet identified any other suspects and are unsure whether others were involved.

The attempted burglary was strikingly similar to one six months ago in which thieves entered a campus building with an ax and took about $50,000 worth of computer equipment, police said.

School officials said they believe the two incidents are linked.

“We certainly don’t install large blinking arrows saying, ‘Valuable stuff here, please steal,’ ” said Rob Levin, the school’s chief financial officer. “Someone knew where to go to find concentrated value.”

The school, which last year opened a state-of-the-art, $13-million science center, has had numerous break-ins, resulting in the loss of about $100,000 worth of equipment, Levin said. The school replaces equipment as quickly as possible. “We figure if we needed it in the first place, we still need it,” Levin said.

While school administrators said they probably will increase campus security, they acknowledged that they don’t want to make the large hillside school a fortress.

Pedestrian gates, in fact, are open after school and on weekends so that neighbors can use the running track.

But Hudnut said the school now will review whether it can keep those gates open; Saturday’s burglary suspect apparently used the gates to gain entrance to the campus.

Still, some parents said the school should do more to protect itself.

“They were victimized by being good neighbors,” said one parent, who declined to be identified. “On the one hand, they want to have a totally open campus to the community. . . . On the other hand, you want to keep the school safe and secure. You don’t want to make it an attractive target.”