School Official Says Burglary Suspect Shot in Self-Defense

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 Studio City school’s computer lab, a school official 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, headmaster Tom 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 has not been 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 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 had trouble with police. The attorney, Ralph Peretz of Encino, said he had not yet interviewed the boy but criticized the shooting as an overreaction.