Teens Arrested in Shooting of Man Found Dead in Car

A day after a 21-year-old man was found shot to death in his car with the engine still running, Los Angeles police arrested two 17-year-old boys--one of them the boyfriend of the dead man’s sister.

“This was a senseless, senseless death that didn’t have to happen,” said LAPD Homicide Det. Stephen Fisk.

One of the suspects was arrested at his Panorama City home early Sunday and the other surrendered at the LAPD’s Van Nuys station a few hours later, Fisk said. The two youths were being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall without bail and will face murder charges, Fisk said.

The body of Armando Zuniga of Panorama City was found behind the wheel of his late-model Jeep about 4 a.m. in the 14500 block of Osborne Street. The vehicle was on the wrong side of the street with the motor running and the lights on.

Fisk said Zuniga heard noises outside his home in the 8700 block of Wakefield Avenue about 3:45 a.m. “He didn’t know who they were,” Fisk said. “He just thought they were some car burglars.”

The noises were the suspects knocking at the victim’s sister’s window, Fisk said.

The youths ran off when Zuniga came out of the home, and he got into his Jeep to chase them, Fisk said.

“He lost them, he finds them, he pulls to the curb and he doesn’t even get a chance to get out of his car,” Fisk said. At that point witnesses heard several shots, Fisk said.

“This should have never happened,” said Fisk. “They were both knuckleheads, but one of them had a gun and wanted to be a big man.”

Fisk said the boys were members of a local group of graffiti vandals.