5 Teens Arrested in Winnetka Home Invasion Robbery

Three men, a woman and a 16-year-old boy were arrested Friday in connection with a home invasion robbery in which the victim was sprayed with a chemical and momentarily blinded, police said.

The four males, all wearing masks and one wielding a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, allegedly burst into the Sherman Way apartment while the woman was visiting the victim, police said.

After spraying the 46-year-old man with the unidentified chemical, the intruders commanded the woman to leave, then ransacked the apartment and stole a television, stereo equipment and other items, police said.

“The victim told responding officers that his guest may have been involved,” said Det. Bob Johansen.

An interview with the 19-year-old woman early Friday morning at her apartment on Runnymede Street in Canoga Park led police to a nearby apartment, where they found three of the suspected robbers and most of the victim’s possessions, police said.

Later police arrested the fourth male suspect at the men’s apartment and recovered three watches stolen from the victim.

Johansen said the woman, whom he identified as Zohra Yahya, and the victim met at a local gas station.

“She asked for money and he gave her a couple of dollars and his phone number,” Johansen said he was told. “She kept calling him and wanted more money, offering sex for money and he kept saying: ‘No, no, no.’ . . . One time he apparently said yes.”

Yahya told police that she was angry with the victim because he allegedly told others at the gas station that he’d had sex with her. Johansen said the woman and the four robbers were suspected of working together.

Others arrested on suspicion of first-degree robbery were Lenardo Haywood, 18, Charles Paul, 18, Lonnel Black, 19, and a 16-year-old police declined to name because of his age. Yahya was being held at Van Nuys Jail and the youth was taken to Sylmar Juvenile Detention Center. The others were held at West Valley Jail. Bail has been set at $50,000 each.