2 More Boys Linked to Fatal Stabbing

Two 17-year-old boys were arrested in connection with Sunday’s fatal stabbing of a Tarzana boy at a birthday party, bringing the total number of juvenile murder suspects to six. Four of the boys pleaded not guilty to murder and assault with a deadly weapon charges in juvenile court Wednesday, an L.A. county district attorney’s office spokeswoman said.

Los Angeles police called one of the suspects at his parents’ Calabasas home Tuesday, asked him to turn himself in, and arrested him at the department’s West Valley Station about 5 p.m.

Police arrested another boy Wednesday morning at his parents’ home in Van Nuys. The Van Nuys boy allegedly wielded the buck knife that killed Abtin Tangestanifar, 17, and that was later recovered by police, according to LAPD Det. Andrew Purdy. Both boys were being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.

None of the youths’ names were released because they are minors.

“We’ve got one or two more suspects out there,” Purdy said. “We’ll be going out and getting them soon.”

The boys arraigned in court--two 17-year-olds from Northridge, a 16-year-old Chatsworth boy, and a 16-year-old from Granada Hills--are to appear in Sylmar Juvenile Court for a July 14 hearing, said district attorney’s office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

Police have said Tangestanifar rebuffed five to eight suspected gang members as they attempted to crash a birthday party in the 17900 block of Medley Drive in Encino. Instead of leaving the party, the suspects lingered outside. After Tangestanifar and his friends left the party, they were confronted by the alleged gang members and asked if they were also gang members. When Tangestanifar said he did not belong to a gang, he was attacked, authorities said.

Purdy said most of the suspects come from upper middle-class homes, attend private schools and are members of a local Armenian gang.

The reason for the attack is still unclear, police said.

“There was some chest-pounding machismo going on I guess,” Purdy said. “You know how gangs are. It doesn’t take much for them to take offense. They’re predators.”