L.A. School Policeman Is Killed

A five-year veteran of the Los Angeles Unified School District police force was fatally shot inside his home Wednesday night, becoming the second officer in the 300-member force to be killed, albeit off-duty.

Although the slaying was initially described as the apparent result of a home-invasion robbery, sources in the school police and the Los Angeles Police Department said later that they were looking at the business dealings and personal relationships of the victim, 32-year-old Joel Andrew Shanbrom.

“I knew him to be a good officer, a family man, a very pleasant personality,” said school district Police Chief Wesley Mitchell.

LAPD detectives declined to comment on their investigation, but sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said no murder weapon was found immediately after the shooting. In addition, they said, nothing appeared to be missing from Shanbrom’s rented home on Raymer Street in Northridge that he shared with his wife, Jennifer, and their 3-year-old son.

Sources close to the investigation also said Thursday that the crime was not reported for two hours.

Jennifer Shanbrom told investigators that she had locked herself and her son in a second-story bathroom after hearing a shot fired about 7:30 p.m. and remained there in terror, sources said.

Shanbrom’s mother-in-law, Diane Bates, returned home from the movies and discovered his body about 9:30 p.m. and called police.

Joel and Jennifer Shanbrom ran a part-time financial planning business and contracted with Primerica Financial Services, based in Duluth, Ga., between 1996 and 1997.

Primerica Senior Vice President Mark Supic said the couple generated only $2,000 for the company, after which they terminated their contract voluntarily.

The Shanbroms continued to do financial planning work, however, and went into business with Joel Shanbrom’s older sister, Raquel Shanbrom of Culver City.

Joel Shanbrom also offered financial advice to his fellow officers at the school district. The couple moved late last year from Palmdale to Northridge.

Shanbrom was hired by the district police department in July 1993. Like most district officers, he graduated from the Rio Hondo Police Academy in Whittier. He took up a six-month training assignment in January 1994 at Horace Mann Middle School in South Los Angeles.

He spent the remainder of his career in the Valley, serving as a resident officer at Polytechnic High in Sun Valley and Kennedy High in Granada Hills before arriving at his most recent assignment as a patrol officer in the Verdugo Hills complex including Verdugo Hills High School, Mt. Gleason Middle School and six elementary schools.

Shanbrom’s father and brother, who gave statements to police at the LAPD’s Devonshire station Thursday afternoon, praised the 6-foot, 2-inch, 225-pound officer as a “gentle giant” who loved his wife and son and had high ambitions.

Administrators at the campuses recalled Shanbrom as a kind police officer who always made time for children.